


Cheater's hand

by Worstplayever



Category: Persona 5
Genre: Alternate Universe, Developing Relationship, F/M, Friends to Lovers, My First Fanfic, Other Additional Tags to Be Added
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-11
Updated: 2021-03-04
Packaged: 2021-03-10 22:49:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 29,189
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28004946
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Worstplayever/pseuds/Worstplayever
Summary: An au where Makoto and Ren met when they were kids.Updates every other week.
Relationships: Amamiya Ren/Niijima Makoto, Niijima Makoto/Persona 5 Protagonist
Comments: 5
Kudos: 80





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Twist of Fate](https://archiveofourown.org/works/14242566) by [11KairiMayumi11](https://archiveofourown.org/users/11KairiMayumi11/pseuds/11KairiMayumi11). 



She always did everything by the books, always wanting to please her family. Most especially her sister, who always studied, and had no time for friends and very little time for family.

As such, she also had little time for friends, so that she could match her sister. She attempted to act proper, study hard, and set a time for everything she does to keep a schedule. All for the sake of being liked by her big sister. Since she had little time to make friends, she was always bullied for not having them and for acting so “robotic”.

Now a young 8 year old girl with ruby eyes was being bullied out in the courtyard of a school in Tokyo. The group bullying her this time were three taller and older kids, rather than the usual one or two kids her age (and sometimes younger). Before she could easily defend herself with the aikido moves her father taught her, but these kids looked meaner and had longer limbs. They knew exactly what she was self-conscious about and it scared her. Never in her life had someone looked down on her with the power to back it up.

“Haha! Beep-boop Niijima, want your dumb panda doll back? Well then, why don’t you just ask!” 

The bullies threw her black and white doll toward each other like a game of monkey-in-the-middle. At times, she could hear a ripping noise coming from the poor doll’s arms, head, and legs.

“I-I already have! Please just give Buchi-kun back!” She attempted to reason, on the verge of tears.

“What was that? Throw your panda onto the roof? Okay, if you want!” The bully who had her doll smirked before throwing the stuffed panda toward the roof and out of sight.

“NO!” Her yell was loud enough for everyone in the school yard to hear. The teachers were, unfortunately for the red eyed girl all inside either packing their things or getting ready for a club they had.

“Beep-boop Niijima, Beep-boop Niijima.” Almost all who were there chanted while laughing. Those who weren’t chanting were too frightened to speak up. The bullies especially had proud and evil grins on their faces.

Fortunately for the young Niijima, the Buchimaru doll didn’t make it to the roof and instead landed near a young boy’s feet.

“Let’s leave the _baby_ alone to _cry_.” They mumbled as they walked off, they laughed in an evil, distorted way. The young Niijima suspected a teacher was walking toward her, as she heard hushed murmurs behind her and footsteps.

  
A grey eyed boy with nappy bed hair walked up to the now crying Niijima, holding her beloved doll.

“Um, excuse me? Is this yours?” he asked, shyly. He seemed nervous, almost like this is his first time speaking to a girl.

“Y-yes,” she responded, sniffing between words, trying to avoid any more ridicule. “Are you here to make fun of me too? W-well go ahead laugh.” She sniffled through her last sentence.

“No, I came here to give you your Buchi doll back. Why would I want to make fun of you?” He replied with a warming grin on his face.

Niijima looked directly at the cute grey eyed boy with confusion, he was a year younger than she was and he wasn’t laughing like most kids, like he actually cared. 

‘ _W-what is this, a new form of bullying? Luring me into a false sense of hope?’_ She shook her head, wanting to dispel those negative thoughts. ‘ _N-no I need to think positively.’_

“R-really? You aren’t here to make fun of me?” She asked meekly.

“Of course not.” Smiled warmingly, his voice filling with genuine care. “Nothing that happened was funny. I’m really sorry for what everyone else did” 

“O-oh, thank you, I’ll see you around school then. Good bye.” She got up, almost forgetting to grab Buchi-kun, the one who inadvertently started this mess, bowed in gratitude, and left with a smile on her face, hoping to see him again.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The young Niijima awaited for her Buchi-kun’s savior by the gate from the day before. She was radiating with happiness from the day before, where a bed headed boy had helped her in her saddest moment. While she waited she did a bit of studying.

_‘I can’t wait to see him again, I was so caught up in my emotions that I forgot to ask for his name. I even forgot to tell him mine, even though he probably already knows it as Beep-boop Niijima’_ She wanted to express her gratitude some more. _‘Maybe he’ll want to be friends… no, no. Who would want to be friends with me’_ She was so distracted she couldn’t even concentrate on her work.

Just then as she was deep in though, she heard the same voice of the boy who saved her beloved Buchi-kun, “Oh, good morning! I didn’t think I’d see you.”

It was him.

“Good morning um, I’m sorry but I don’t believe I know your name.” She replied packing up and getting up. 

“My name’s Ren Amamiya, and I’m guessing you’re ‘Beep-boop’ Niijima?” While he had said the name everyone used to make fun of her, he wasn’t saying it in a manner to ridicule her. 

_‘It’s almost like he’s teasing me, like other kids and their friends. Does he-’_ She mentally slapped herself. ’ _No of course not.’_

“Actually my name is Makoto Niijima, it’s a pleasure to properly meet you Amamiya-kun.” She corrected.

“I was just teasing you, you know, like a friend would?” He smiled “Anyways it’s nice to meet you too, Ren is fine by the way. I mean we are friends right?” His face was filled to the brim with happiness and-

‘ _H-he called me his friend! Okay, okay. Act natural, just say something a basic friend would say. Wait, what would a friend say? Maybe shake their hand? No, no that’s dumb.’_ She was filled with joy that she finally found someone to call a friend.

“R-right, you can call me Makoto.” She said shyly.

Ren had a troubled look on his face, causing Makoto to cringe inwardly. ‘ _Oh no, does he not want to be friends? Congratulations Makoto you gained and lost a-’_

“I think I’ll still call you ‘Beep-boop’, as a nickname you know?” Ren finally said, a mischievous grin adorning his features.

‘ _Is he serious? I mean it’s not a name I’m fond of. But maybe he can change that. Hm, I need to find a high ground, a way to counter my own nickname, let’s see his name is Ren, so...’_

“Alright, as long as I can call you RenRen!” She said, extending her arm, hoping to shake Ren’s hand.

He smiled, “Not very original, but alright, you have yourself a deal.” He extended his arm and shook her hand.

They stayed talking for a little while until Makoto checked her watch, “Oh my, it looks like we’ll be late for class if we stay talking.”

“Oh well.” Looking disappointed, before his face bloomed with excitement, “We should hang out after school!” She was caught completely off guard, surely this would happen later on in their friendship.

“Y-yes we should. I can’t wait to see you, um, after school,” 

‘ _Oh my goodness this is all happening so fast! I can’t wait for school to end!’_

With that, they entered the school, anticipating for it to end, before they finally met up again to hang out.

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Over the next few months, their friendship grew. They were able to tell each other private things, like a family. 

Ren introduced his mother (his father met an untimely demise during his job in the army, though he was unknown when or why) Cereza Amamiya, who adored her and gave her a lot of presents to spoil Makoto. She even managed to embarrass Ren. He mentioned a cousin in high school, who’s name wasn’t said. The only thing he did say was that she was in middle school Makoto found this odd. He almost never hides anything. But she figured that even he had secrets.

Makoto eventually had to introduce Ren to her father, Ichitaro Niijima. He tried maliciously to intimidate Ren, to what Ichitaro saw, had no effect. He eventually gave up saying "This kid is unscarable." The moment he left, Ren collapsed. He was so afraid of him, but his mother told him not to give the enemy the satisfaction of a fearful look. But it was still incredibly scary for him. It took him a second to recover from the scare.

Her mother had died a few years ago. Ren apologised for this, wanting to make Makoto cheer up. She said it was kind, but it wasn't needed, as she doesn't remember much of her.

Lastly was her sister, who tried to do what her father did, intimidate Ren. A few seconds later and Ren would have broken from the stress. However, she had to go back to her work. Makoto felt sad, but Ren helped cheer her up.

About a week before exams ended. They were walking home together.

They were discussing homework, while they were walking they saw a butterfly.

“Ren! A butterfly, it’s so pretty!” She exclaimed. Her eyes were wide and was very intrigued by the velvet blue butterfly.

“A butterfly? What’s so special about a b-bu-bug.” Ren started to freeze up as the butterfly flew toward him.

“Don’t tell me you're afraid of bugs RenRen.” She laughed as she swatted the butterfly away from him, which it did. But it ended up landing on her finger. The bug turned toward her, looking her directly at her eyes, then it turned around and flew off. As it flew away, it looked back at both of them then flew off toward the mountains. Almost like it was processing things like a human. Probably her mind playing tricks on her.

“Thanks Beep-boop.”He smiled proudly. Makoto was unsure why, but her face began to heat up. Until his face fell three feet toward the floor.

“Ren what’s the matter?” she noticed immediately.

“After school ends, mom and I are going to move to a town named Inaba.” He said, “But, we can still stay in touch! We could write to each other after all!”

Makoto, who was sad realised that she was losing a friend then said, “Well I’ll always be here for you if you ever come back, no matter what!” She said as they reached her house.

Ren smiled, thanked her and walked home.

‐--------‐-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The end of the year was a tough toll on all five of them. Makoto and Ren were especially sad, since they weren't able to see each other for a long time.

"Take care Cereza, and you too little Ren." Ichitaro had said ready to see them off.

"I hope you three will be alright, I know Ren will be extremely sad to go." Cereza said with a sad smile.

"Yes, well tell Ren I said bye, I need to get back to my school work." Sae said, unable to admit how sad she was."Speaking of whom, where is Ren and Makoto?"

"Oh, they're off saying their own farwells. You know I think my RenRen liked Makoto." The raven haired mom said.

"Same thing Lil-Koto but, with how things are going, I seriously doubt they'll get together at this point." Ichitaro sighed in disappointment.

On top of a small hill, Ren and Makoto were talking for what could be their last time."Well then Ren, this is it. I'll miss you a lot." Makoto couldn't hold back her tears

"Don't worry, I'll write you a lot of letters so we can keep in touch!" The poor boy was also incredibly sad to leave his best friend.

Later, they all met up. Cereza and Ren hopped in her car and waved goodbye to the Niijima's.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mid-night _4/8_

Over the next 10 years, things changed for the worse.Makoto's father was killed while on duty. After his death, neither of them got each other's letters. As for Ren, he was wrongly accused of assault. After he had rushed in to help a woman who was being harassed by an older bald man. He tried to stop it but the old man ended up tripping and bumping his head. He ended up telling the police to arrest him, while obviously blackmailing her. The police not only seemed to recognise but took his side. He’s to stay on probation in Yongen-Jaya under the care of Sojiro Sakura for one year. Cereza was unable to come into contact including mail, text, video chat, call, and meet face-to-face with him for that year. To her sadness she walked Ren to the station.

“R-Ren, I want you to know no matter what anyone else might say, do, or even think, I will always be by your side. I wish you the best of luck, be careful, and don’t get into too much trouble.” She cried while hugging him. 

“Mom, I’ll be fine, I promise I won’t be trouble. He said, hugging her back, “Besides I’m going to have a great guide once I get there!”

“Right, when you see her again, tell her I said ‘Hi’ and remind her that she’s free to visit whenever she likes.” She said with a smile.

Ren turned around, seeing that the train had arrived. “Well then I’m off!” He hugged Cereza one more time, hopped on the train, and left for Tokyo. 

“Alright Makoto, I’ll see you there.” He muttered to himself, before falling asleep.

Suddenly everything went blue, velvet blue. He vaguely heard a call. He couldn’t quite make out the words “Your cha- almost none, but if my v- reach- there might still be a ch-.”  
  
  
  
  
____________  
  


[???]- rank1


	2. Reunion

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone, hope you're having a good day so far. I think I might update every other week to give me time to not only edit the chapter, but to also start the next one.

* * *

“This r- unjust game, t- zero to n-. B- my voice is r- th- be a ch-.

\------------------------------------------------------------

_ 4/9 _

Ren woke up with a gasp, ‘ _That was odd.'_ Ren looked around the train car to see if anyone was whispering that to him. _'Who was that voice?'_ The night of the _incident_ was taking a toll on his current state of mind. He needed to find a way to relax. He thought back to the voice. _'I haven’t even been able to tell who it is.'_ Suddenly he looked up from where he was sitting. _'Wait, where am I again?’_

"No way she knows Naoto? That has to be a lie!"

"It's totally true! There's also a rumor that she might have a boyfriend."

"That's impossible, how could she have a boyfriend? Whoever it is must be the most famous person alive!" The two students discussed rather loudly.

He was on a train to Yongen-Jaya after being wrongly judged as a criminal. “Oh right that’s what happened.” He unknowingly said out loud. He was met with two judgemental stares.

‘ _Weren’t they just talking about Rise-chan? Why are they… Oh I said that out loud.’_ He awkwardly waved at them. They then went back to talking about Risette, checking his phone’s time and sighed to himself _‘Well then around 24 hours until I get to go to school, on a sunday. What a day to reunite.’_ He sighed.

“Now arriving at Yongen-Jaya, repeat, now arriving at Yongen-Jaya.” The train announcer spoke.

‘ _Here’s my stop.’_ He stood, throwing his bag over his back, and preparing to leave.

\------------------------------------------------------------

Yogen-Jaya, while being what Ren could only assume to be an average city in Tokyo, was already larger than Inaba. ‘ _This place is huge, I'm glad I entered his address on Google maps, though it only showed me this street for some reason.’_

He started looking around to find where his guardian's house could be. Eventually he saw what he could only assume to be a goth doctor. _'She's walking in a specific direction without looking up so I'm guessing she's from around here, might as well ask.'_

“Excuse me Ms, but would you happen to know the location of Sojiro Sakura’s house?” He asked politely.

“Old man isn’t at his house right now, he’s at his shop, Leblanc. Keep going forward, look to your right, and you’ll see it there.” The doctor spoke, almost impatiently.

“Thank you Ms…” He waited, expecting to get her name. 

“Doctor Takemi, local pharmacist around the corner.” She said leaving toward her clinic.

‘ _That was weird. She didn't even look in my direction. She also seemed a bit annoyed at my presence. I hope not everyone in Yongen is like that.’_ Ren optimistically thought to himself.

\------------------------------------------------------------

Once he made it to Lablanc he looked around for Sojiro, the only people he saw was an old married couple and an old man with black hair, who was solving a crossword puzzle. ‘ _I guess that’s him.’_

The old man looked up from his crossword puzzle, “Oh that’s right. They did say that was today.” He said in a milky voice.

“We best be off, we’re glad that this place isn’t in any danger of being destroyed by runaway trucks.” The old man said, before leaving.

“What an odd pair, first they stay for hours only ordering one cup of joe, then spouting nonsense like that.” He said rubbing the back of his neck.

“Thank you for taking me under your care for a year, Sakura-san,” He said with a bow.

“Wow don’t you have manners. But that’s not gonna save you from being kicked out the minute you cause trouble. Your bedroom is upstairs in the attic, I’ll be up there once I close shop.” He said sternly clearly he didn’t want any trouble.

“Right, I’ll get situated.” He said going up the stairs. He looked around his new room.

‘ _Wow this place is very cluttered.'_ There was a bike without a wheel, A potted plant around a bunch of newspapers, a desk that had a light cloth over it, and a couch with another piece of cloth. _I need to clean this before I get my stuff ready. While I do that, I should set up some music, this place gives off a ‘Beneath the Mask’ kind of vibe.’_ He started to clean his new room while listening to his music.

Hours later, he finished. Most of the papers were in a corner that wouldn't disturb him. The plant was put next to an old shelf that he only uncovered after removing the papers. ‘ _That took way longer than expected. It’s night now as well. And I still don’t know what to do with this bike. There’s more space in the back, maybe I’ll put it there. I'll sell the papers later and I'll make the cloth into curtains, or a blanket if they're confey enough.’_ He thought, putting the remaining items in the back.

Just then Sojiro came up. “Wow this is what you’ve been doing? I heard all this noise and was wondering what was going on. Anyways, here’s a journal, you’ll write anything and everything everyday until your probation ends. I’m assuming you don’t need to know where we’ll be going, am I correct?” Ren shook his head.Sojiro threw the journal on the table near the stairs. His phone rang “Hello? Oh it’s you, yeah don’t worry I’ll get it on my way home.” He hung up, said his goodnight and walked home.

“Alright, time to sleep.” He started to sleep when he felt his phone rumble and opened it. “What a weird app.” He tapped it, nothing happened, he thought he saw a flame smirk at him from the window. But quickly dismissed the thought.

\------------------------------------------------------------

Ren woke to the sound of chains. ‘ _What the. Where am I?’_ As he wondered he got up and he heard footsteps in front of what he could see now, was his cell. He moved toward the bars, until his leg was heavier than usual. ‘ _A ball and chain!?! How did I even get here?’_ He walked up toward the cell bars and saw two small girls staring at him from outside the cell, besides them was a tall young man, about his height and the same eternal bed head. In the middle of the room, was a long nosed old man with the largest grin on his face.  
  
“Welcome to _my_ Velvet room.” He spoke with a deep, distorted voice.

However Ren was having none of that. “GET ME THE HELL OUT OF HERE!” His yell was mighty.

_WACK_ “KNOW YOUR PLACE INMATE!” The girl with bun hair yelled back, with her baton, with an electrifying wack.

"Please know that while we are here to help, we will not hesitate to hurt you." Threatened the girl with the clipboard.  
  
“Haha, I see you still have life in you. Allow me to explain, I am Igor the caretaker of the velvet room. These are your assistants, the twins Caroline and Justine. To your left Justine, to your right is Caroline.” He informed Ren. However he never talked about the boy off to the side.

' _Weird, even though they're twins they have an eyepatch on an eye. I don't think that's how twins work.'_

“What about him?” He pointed to the mysterious figure.

“He is Victor. His, along with Justine and Caroline's roles will be revealed in due time.” The balding long nosed man said.

‘ _Someone likes Frankenstein’_ He thought to himself.

“Well then it is time for you to wake up. Remember you must do everything in your power to stop ruin.” He said before kicking Ren out of the velvet room.

Unknown to him or Igor however, there was another figure behind the desk. She couldn't move, speak, or hear. She could however hear everything being said.

\------------------------------------------------------------

_4/10_

Ren woke up with a start. He searched around his room to make sure he was in his new bedroom. “Ruin? Velvet room? What a strange dream. Well at least I'm not in a prison.” he muttered to himself.

“Ah you're awake.” Sojiro said as he climbed up “Alright get ready and let’s go.”

“Alright give me a couple of minutes.” Sojiro nodded, walked down stairs, and left Ren to change.

  
‘ _Need to look my best for her.’_ He had said actually combing his hair. He was finally going to see a special someone after 10 whole years! ‘ _Gotta look presentable.’_ He said eventually he stopped trying to comb his hair and decided that his outfit looks good.

\------------------------------------------------------------

Makoto woke up about 10 minutes before her alarm and was in the process of making breakfast for herself. Since she was about to meet _him_ she needed to be prepared, not even thinking about the odd dream she had. ‘ _Ren’s going to be there, Ren’s going to be there. I need to look presentable’_ She thought as she straightened her headband. 

Makoto rushed through her routine. She wrote a note for Sae who was going to wake up an hour after she left. The note read "Sorry I haven't made breakfast for you sis. I'm going to school for an important meeting."

"Alright, it's time to go." The headbanded brunette said to herself before leaving.

\------------------------------------------------------------

When she arrived at Shujin, she went into Principal Kobayakawa’s office per his instructions. Only she found that he wasn’t there. She began to walk toward his desk when she saw a file named "Project leak”. The file wasn’t that big, maybe one or two papers were in it. ‘ _Project leak? What could that be about?’_ She was about to investigate when she heard two voices and four footsteps walking toward the office.

“Which is why you’ll be in charge of the new student.” Principal Kobayakawa explained to Kawakami, “Ah Niijima-san, I’m glad to see you’re here early.” Kobayakawa said before returning to his desk. Kawakami looked like she was about to say something but decided not to.

“Of course Principal Kobayakawa, I was just about to walk out to wait for you, until you and Kawakami sensei walked in.” She was about to continue when the door opened. She looked toward the door and saw _him_ , Ren Amamiya! 

He looked more handsome, charming, way taller than herself, and he looked more dashing in those glasses. ' _How does he still have a bed head after all these years? At the very least it looks a little combed'_ Makoto analysed. As she continued to analyse the older Ren she began to blush. Whatever principal Kobayakawa was saying wasn’t important since she was just so excited to see him.

\------------------------------------------------------------

“And remember, anything you do wrong will not be helped by anyone. Not a single person will be there to help you, not myself nor your teacher, Sadayo Kawakami.” The tub of lard repeated, “And especially not our student council president, Makoto Niijima!” Principal Lard had repeated this whole spiel twice already using different words. “Niijima-san?”

Makoto blinked twice before she responded “Oh r-right. As principal Kobayakawa explained, I’m Makoto Niijima the student council president.” Ren repressed a laugh.

‘ _She’s still so cute.’_ He thought to himself. “It’s nice to meet you Niijima-senpai. I hope that we can become friends despite my criminal record.” He said in a teasing voice. 

The meeting continued and had quickly ended with Ren being given his student id from Kawakami (he also saw an oddly colored pamphlet, but Kawakami quickly took it away). Soon he and Sojiro were leaving.

\------------------------------------------------------------

Outside principal Kobayakawa’s office, “Mr. Sakura-”

“Call me boss, I’ve already told this one to.” He stated.

‘ _How odd, but I’ll roll with it.’_ “My apologies, boss. Principal Kobayakawa has instructed me to give Amaiya-kun a tour of Shujin.” The brunette explained.

“Alright, but keep it quick.” He told Makoto Ren, “After all I have a store to run,” He stated before leaving.

They waited a few minutes for him to leave the floor before, “Wow, how were you able to keep up the good girl act for that long? I almost lost my composure when I teased you there” Ren’s voice was so deep compared to what Makoto remembered, though that was to be expected seeing as how he was older. But she was still caught off guard.

“Honestly I don’t know, it was incredibly difficult. Anyways, how have you been!” She said with a smile that could light a room.” I mean look at you, you’ve grown way past me, and you have glasses now!”

“Well the glasses are supposed to, and I quote from mom ‘Hide my criminal looking eyes.’ Oh right Mom says ‘Hi’ by the way” The taller and cuter boy gave her the message.

Makoto was excited to catch up, so she continued the conversation as they walked. “Oh right, how is Cereza?”

“She’s doing fine, at least I hope. I’m not sure how she is right now, I’m unable to contact her. Not through call, text, mail, you name it.” Her best friend looked as though his heart was broken. 

“Ren, you can count on me to help you, no matter what!” ’ _I need to help him, like he helped me all those years ago whenever I felt down.’_ She thought, giving Ren another bright smile.

“Right, thank you Makoto.” He smiled back. “So, what’s been happening with you?”

“Oh right! I’ve made a friend, her name is Haru Okomura!” She said proudly.

“Oh really? Well then, it looks like I’ll have competition for the title of Niijima’s best friend.” Ren was extremely confident that he would win by the sounds of it.

“Oh come on, you’ll win without breaking a sweat.” She encouraged.

Ren chuckled at that. "Enough about me, how's your family going?"

"Well my relationship with sis has been going exactly how you remember it. As for my father. He died when I started middle school." She said solemnly.

"I'm sorry Makoto, I wish I could've been there to help." He said, bringing Makoto into a hug.

' _He's hugging me?!? I wasn't ready for this!'_ Her mind was working overtime to try and understand what was happening.

He pulled out of the hug and asked "How are you and Sae handling this?" Worried about her. 

_'It's nice to have a friend like him, always so caring.'_ She thought.

"Well Sae has been taking care of me, but I'm afraid her job is taking a toll on her. She's been coming home late and a little meaner. Sometimes I don't even see her for days." The brunette explained sadley.

"I see. Well you can vent to me whenever you need. I won't mind, I swear." He smiled attempting to cheer her up. Until he put his hand on his chin in a "Wait, you said he died when you were in middle school? That was when you stopped writing me letters." Ren pieced together.

"Wait, what? I thought you stopped writing to me. I wrote to you the day after father died!" She was shocked, "It's almost as if someone-"

"Stopped your letters from being sent. So he was killed and someone stopped all of your letters to me. That's messed up." Ren deduced.

"That's a good theory though, you stole my thunder." Makoto pouted.

"Sorry, couldn't help it." He said with a laugh. They continued to catch up on things. Little did they know, someone was watching them from the shadows. Anyone who was near that area could tell he had an evil intent. 

"Well, it looks like the criminal and the pres know each other." The figure crackled an evil laugh, and walked off.

\------------------------------------------------------------

When they reached the ground floor they saw Sojiro waiting by his car. "Well, this is where we part ways." He sighed.

"Yes, but I will be taking you to school. Principal's orders." The ruby eyed girl said with a glad tone.

"Sounds like you haven't deactivated Beep-boop." He said teasingly.

"I see your witt evolved since we last saw each other." Makoto was not in the mood for his shenanigans.

"Like you wouldn't believe~." She sensed the slightest bit of teasing. "Anyways I'll see you tomorrow morning then!" Ren started to walk toward Sojiro. "See ya Mako- I mean Niijima-senpai!"

She waited for their car to be out of sight and started to walk to the station. ' _Wasn't expecting him to be like that. He got way better teasing me. I don't know if that's a good thing or not. On the bright side though, I get to see him in the morning. Tomorrow is going to be a perfect day!'_ While Makoto walked she stopped for a moment to see a butterfly. ' _A velvet blue butterfly? I haven't seen one in ages. Why is there one here in the middle of a big city?'_ Makoto knew these questions wouldn't be answered but she took a photo. When she realised she doesn't have his phone number.

Makoto sighs "I can't believe I forgot to ask, well gonna get it from him when I get to Lablanc." The brunette didn't realise she said this out loud.

"Who are you talking about Mako-chan?" Suddenly a surprise voice spoke to her.

"Ah! Haru? I didn't realize you were there. When did you get here?" She desperately wanted to avoid Haru's question. 

"Actually I just got here. You haven't answered my question by the way." The cotton candied haired girl responded. She wouldn't let her get out of this one.

"Well I, uh, was talking about my friend. The one I've known since I was 8." She said a bit embarrassed.

"Oh, I see. So, is he cute?" Haru was clearly trying to get Makoto embarrassed.

It worked. "Yes… I-I mean no. I mean I wouldn't know, I-. Could you repeat the question?" The brunette stumbled over her words.

"Mako-chan if I didn't know any better it sounds like you like him~. Anyways, I have to go to the roof. I have some crops I have to take care of. Come with me, you can help! I'll ask my chauffeur to drive you back to your house once we're done." Haru offered.

"What? No I don't, why would you even ask that?" She was too embarrassed by what Haru had suggested that she didn't hear the second thing she said.

"By the sound of it. There are no objections. Come on let's go up." Haru said walking up to the school doors.

_'Guess there's no escaping this.'_ She thought walking toward the stairs.

Neither Ren, Makoto, nor Haru realised what bullet they dodged, for a train came crashing into Shibuya square's subways.

\------------------------------------------------------------

"Soji- um, Boss, why did you take me in?" Ren asked on their way back to Lablanc.

"I was in the right place at the right time." Ren could hear the hesitation, "Besides, I was already paid. Anyways, I've heard about cars crashing into buildings recently. You should be careful getting back to Lablanc." Boss continued to spout random nonsense just to get away from the original topic.

When they did get home, it wasn't very long until Ren was about to sleep. Until he heard the down stairs phone ring.

"Hello kid? It's me Sojiro." The old man sounded very tired. Ren could hear an extremely faint voice in the background, he couldn't make out what they were saying though.

"You forget your wallet or something?" He asked, attempting to lighten the mood.

The attempt failed. "No, I need you to flip the sign so that it says 'Closed' I forgot to do it myself. Don't worry I'll be more diligent tomorrow onward." He hung up after bidding farewell.

Ren went outside the cafe, flipped the sign, and went to sleep. With no strange prison dream.

____________

[???]- rank 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Merry Christmas to all!


	3. Welcome to the Castle of Lust

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoy this chapter.

_4/11_

Ren woke from his sleep and began to prepare for his first day of school. Once he was prepared he walked down the stairs of Lablanc ready to start the day when he saw Makoto waiting in the booth by the entrance.

"Good morning Amamiya-kun." She greeted with a grand smile.

"Good morning Ma- Niijima-sempai, here to take me to school?" Once again he almost called Makoto by her first name. 

"Look, if you two are already friends or not, I don't care. Call each other by your first names." Sojiro said bluntly.

"Thank you boss, do you happen to have breakfast for me?" Ren had just woken up and was feeling hungry.

"Yes. Here's some curry and coffee. Niijima, if you're hungry you can have some too, or I could just give you coffee. What do you put in yours?" Sojiro asked, like a parent would.

"Actually I already ate breakfast, and I don't drink coffee. I'm sorry boss." Makoto apologised.

Ren started to eat while Sojiro sighed. ' _I wasn't paying attention to her appearance yesterday. Except for that braid, she looks exactly the same as I saw her last.'_ He analysed more discretetly than Makoto did the previous day.

\------------------------------------------------------------

After Ren finished his meal he and Makoto started to go to school. 

"Ren take an umbrella. It might rain." She said waiting by the front door.

Ren grabbed two umbrella's from the attic and returned to the bottom floor. Only to be met by Makoto's judgmental stare. "What? It could be useful in case you or someone we find on the way to school doesn't have one. First impressions are important." He reasoned.

Makoto sighed as she opened the door. "I guess you have a point. Well them, let's go. I'll guide you to the school's station." She said as she opened the door waiting for him to walk forward.

"Sorry Makoto, but ladies first." He said, giving a teasing smile.

"Alright then." She went through the door. "See you at the first station!" She yelled as she ran toward Yongen Jaya's station.

"Hey! Wait for me!" Ren yelled not wanting to get lost.

\------------------------------------------------------------

They made it to Aoyama-Ichome's stop. "Alright Ren, it's just a few more minutes and we'll get to Shujin!" She sounded excited.

Ren was excited as well. A new school where people don't know him. This could be his chance to gain friends after what happened in Inaba. Until he heard something unsettling. 

"Is that him?" 

"It sure looks like him."

"He's way too close to Niijima-senpai. Do you think he might stab her?!?" 

"Let's keep a close eye on the criminal just in case he tries anything with Niijima-san." The students were whispering loud enough for him to hear.

' _What!?! How do they know? Could someone have leaked it, but who would do that? I haven't done anything to upset anyone yet.'_ Ren began to panic. _'No, t-there's no way they know. Maybe they're talking about someone else. Yeah, that has to be it._ ' He wanted to stay optimistic.

Unfortunately Makoto was his best friend, and she was able to tell that he was uncomfortable. "Ren. Is there something wrong?" Ren attempted to deny it but "Ren, you can talk to me about anything that's troubling you. You know this. Remember I got your back, no matter what." She said with a smile.

Ren was really glad to have someone like Makoto as his friend. "Right I'll-" He looked around the station realising that there were some that were watching and, by default, listening to their conversation. "I'll ask you later." He ultimately decided.

"Alright, but I'll hold you to it, and look. It's raining, told you our umbrella's would be useful." She said triumphantly. She and Ren began to walk up the stairs when Ren heard the other students murmur again.

"Wow did you see that!"

"She was totally in control of him!"

"She has him under her finger, she even pretended to be that _THINGS_ friend." The students were relentless in their rumors and insults.

However that last comment confused him. ' _Pretend to be my friend? Why would they even think that? She was clearly comforting me while you assholes were making rumors from nowhere.'_ He said in a calmer state of mind.

Suddenly he was shoved by a blond haired girl. "Sorry! I didn't mean to push you!" She said this once she made it under some roof to escape the rain. "I completely forgot my umbrella and I wasn't watching where I was going and…" Her abrupt stop brought a confused stare from Ren and Makoto. "Niijima-senpai?!? Then you must be! I'm so sorry for pushing your boyfriend. It was an accident, I swear!" She said with a bow.

Ren's face instantly went on fire. He took a peak at Makoto and by the looks of it, she wasn't any better. "Actually" His voice cracked. "She's tutoring me, principal's orders." He somehow managed to say. "It's fine for shoving me you were clearly out of breath, be more careful next time though. What's your name?" Finally she looked up.

She introduced herself. "Oh, right. It's Ann Takamaki. I'll see you two at school then, bye!" She started to walk off.

"Actually, would you like to use my spare umbrella? I don't really need it and you clearly need it more than I do." He said, grabbing his second umbrella and handing it to her. Ann thanked him, opened the umbrella and walked off. He saw a white car on the sidewalk and lowered the window.

"Hey Niijima! Why don't you hop in my car. You can avoid the rain and _him_." Ren hasn't properly met this guy, but he already hates him.

"It's fine Kamoshida-sensei. I'll walk." She said with, from what Ren could tell, was anger in her voice. At this, Kamoshia looked at them with a scowl before leaving.

"I'm sorry, but he's a teacher here?" Makoto nodded. "But he seemed so perverted. Everything about him was telling me that he's a pervert." He was definitely not angry about him trying to take Makoto away from him.

"I know what you mean. To add to your suspicion, there are a couple of rumors about him." She began to explain as they walked. "For one the girl we met is rumored to be dating Kamoshida."

"Hey you two. Can I ask ya a question?" While the voice was aimed at Ren and Makoto, they paid it no mind.

"Interesting, how could they be dating? He's like twice her age." He asked when his suspicion rose.

"Hey miss Prez, kid I've never met before, you hear me?" Clearly no.

"To be honest I don't even know myself it is just a rumor after all." She said as the school came into view.

"HEY! LOVEBIRDS! YA HEAR ME!?!" Now that got their attention.

Makoto hid her face from the shock of the yell, while Ren looked away from Makoto to hide his embarrassment. "Geez, looks like that finally got to you. I'm Ryuji Sakamoto new kid." Sakamoto explained.

"Why did you call us that?!?" Ren was shocked that this happened twice to them.

"Hmm? Are you not dating? You two were yakking so much, you didn't hear me. I assumed that you might be so in love with the other that you ignored me because of it." 

Ren looked at him with confusion, "We were having a conversation, and there were people walking by. Why is that the first thing to go into your mind."

"Oh, are you guys friends or something'?" Ryuji was finally making sense.

"Why wasn't that-." Makoto couldn't finish her sentence and seighed "What do you want Sakamoto?"

"I was going to ask, did you see Ann go into Kamoshida's car?" He seemed worried.

' _Maybe they're friends, or maybe he has a crush on her.'_ He theorized.

"No, actually Ren here gave her an umbrella and she ran to school." Makoto explained with a smile.

Ryuji was satisfied with the answer and left to enter the school. Ren and Makoto followed his lead with a bit of awkwardness in the air.

\------------------------------------------------------------

Suddenly once they entered the halls of Shujin instantly Ren heard more rumors. This time even Makoto heard them.

"There _he_ is. The criminal guy."

"Do you think he has a knife in his bag?" 

"He's way cuter than I thought he was going to be."

"He probably smuggles drugs all around the world." 

"Shhh, _he_ might hear you."

' _This isn't right, they shouldn't know about his criminal record.'_ Makoto began to understand why he looked fearful at the subway station when they had arrived. ' _Who could have told them? The only ones who should know about this are the teachers and myself'_ She looked behind her to see how Ren was handling this. 

What she saw shocked her. Ren was unreadable. He had the most plain face she had ever seen him in. She had to say something to get the attention off of him. "Amamiya-kun the faculty office is right up here if you would follow me." She began to guide Ren, who simply nodded and to walk after her.

Once they made it to the faculty office Makoto had to part ways with him, not before giving him one last reminder. "Remember, I've got your back." She whispered.

Ren responded with a simple "Thank you for always being here."

While the line was simple, and could have easily meant nothing, to Makoto it spoke paragraphs. She understood exactly what was happening, as it happened to her all those years ago. 

"Meet me at the roof during lunch. It'll help relieve stress, trust me." She whispered expecting to get an answer, only to have him nod in response.

\------------------------------------------------------------

"He was outcasted Haru! By everyone. Not a single person gave him a chance!" She yelled. Makoto had asked Haru to meet with her at the roof.

"Mako-chan, I know how you must feel but you should really calm down." Haru was also obviously angry about this. While she had not met Ren yet, she could tell how upset Makoto was and this whole situation seemed unfair.

"I know." She sighed. "It's just that I really hoped his first impression of this school would be a good one. Any chance for that is now long gone." 

' _Really though, you should have seen this coming.'_ She thought to herself while resting her head down on a nearby table. ' _With that file you saw on the principal's desk.'_ She was filled with alot of shame, since she was unable to realise the possible meaning to the file.

The door swung open and Ren popped out and onto the roof. He looked for a second, to get used to the view. "Hey Makoto." He greeted with a smile and wave that always made Makoto relax. "I'm guessing you're Haru Okumora. It's nice to meet you. I'm Ren Amamiya. I've heard about you from Makoto. Unfortunately for you, I'm Makoto's best friend. You might as well stop trying to achieve that title, because you won't win it." He said with a cocky attitude.

"It's nice to meet you too Ren-kun. But, unfortunately for you Ren-kun I've been planning on winning that title for years, since I've met Mako-chan. You don't even know her anymore." She argued.

Makoto watched their bickering and smiled. It was nice having Ren in the same school as her again. She really missed him.

She picked her head up from the desk. "Ren, I was wondering, how was class?" She wanted to make sure he was alright.

"It went as you would imagine. Greeted everyone. They spouted rumors. I managed to get a seat behind Ann, so not 100% bad just 95%. Got a bunch of questions thrown at me and answered all of them, since the teachers literally said the answer beforehand. Other students started to talk to each other because I answered a question right and Ryuji told me he wanted to talk to me after school." He retold to Makoto and Haru.

"I see. By the way, Ren, why did you look uncomfortable at the station?" She recalled.

"I was panicking on the inside. People started to tell rumors about me and I was starting to lose my mind. Lucky you were there to help me calm down." He said with a grateful smile.

Makoto sighed. "Ren you sound way to calm about this situation."

He shrugged and began to leave to go back to class. "See you two when school ends." He said before closing the door behind him.

"Mako-chan, your friend seems odd, but fun. I can't wait to see him again." Haru said with excitement. Before following in Ren's footsteps and going back to class.

' _It's nice to see Haru and Ren get along.'_ She thought walking down the stairs back to her class. ' _Although, I need to show Ren that not everyone is against him. Even though that's probably the hardest thing to do right now.'_ She thought as she sat on her desk

\------------------------------------------------------------

The bell rang for the last time. It was time for Ren to meet with Ryuji, he said to meet him on the roof.

"Alright, I bet that he'll be a little late." He spoke out loud.

"I'll take you up on those odds RenRen." Makoto greeted, following him up the stairs. Ignoring the rumors beginning to sprout.

They reached the roof and low and behold, Ryuji was late. "Well then Beep-boop, looks like you calculated wrong. We'll discuss my payment at a later date."

Makoto seighed "I could have sworn I saw him going up to the roof. Wait, why do you call him Ryuji?"

"He prefered I called him by his first name. Not sure why but hey, might as well." He told her.

"That reminds me, we don't have each other's phone numbers. We should really exchange them, we can speak to each other once we go home." She suggested.

' _As always, she doesn't realise what she's saying. To anyone else that would be an awkward thing to respond to. Lucky I've known her for a while now.'_ He quickly thought.

He took out his phone, as did she. They exchanged phone numbers and waited a few minutes. They passed the time by continuing to catch up and talk about potential days where they could hang out. When the door finally opened, revealing Ryuji. 

"H-hey dude. Sorry I was so late, got caught up with so many things on the way. Like that pervert Kamoshida." He scowled while he said his name.

"Why do you hate Kamoshida-sensei, Sakamoto-kun?" Makoto asked.

"Good to see you too Prez. To answer your question, I hate his whole attitude. He acts like he's the king of Shujin or something. He can murder someone and nobody would care!" He yelled.

"King of Castle Shujin huh? Must have an accomplished something great to achieve that title." He muttered.

" _Keywords accepted beginning navigation."_ They all looked around for the voice.

"Did you… say something Makoto?" Ren asked suspiciously.

"No I didn't-." Just then everything went red and black. 

Ren closed his eyes in pain.

\------------------------------------------------------------

When Ren opened his eyes he was in a completely different place. Instead of a school roof, there were spikes everywhere. It looked like something out of a medieval play when he was in middle school.

' _Are we on a castle?!?'_ He looked around and by the looks of it, Ryuji and Makoto were thinking the same thing.

"How did we get here?!?" Ryuji said in a panicked voice.

Makoto wasn't doing any better, she was shaking in her boots. Ren tried to calm her down. "Everything will be fine Makoto, I'm sure this is all just a dream, and-."

"HALT! WHO GOES THERE?" A voice yelled at them from the stairs.

"We're here from the school, we don't mean har-."

"YOU DAMN LIAR!" The voice revealed itself as a man in a gold armour and a strange mask that resembled a face. It lunged at Ren knocking him unconscious.

"REN!" Makoto cried out. "That's it you asshole. YOU'RE GOING DOw-" Makoto was then shot with a blow dart. Leaving Ryuji alone.

"Dude! We haven't even done anything!" He tried to reason. He started to speak when he felt a horrible pain strike the back of his neck. Knocking him almost unconscious.

The last thing he heard was. "Take them to the dungeon. We'll see how _King Kamoshida_ deals with them."

Then he too fell.

  
____________  
  


[???]- rank 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope ypu had a happy new years.


	4. Cat who knows Magic

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Posted a little early. Also, went through old chapters and edited them. Nothing big, but significant enough for you all to notice.

_4/11_

"Wake-. W-ke up!" The voice got louder, and louder. "DUDE WAKE UP!" The familiar voice yelled.

Ren opened his eyes to see that he was locked up in a cell with Ryuji. It took him a second to notice, they were missing Makoto. "Where's Makoto." He was able to say thriugh his grogginess

Ryuji looked out of the cell. "I don't know, she isn't in any of the cells around here." Ryuji said, checking again.

' _Please be ok Makoto.'_ As he was about to ask Ryuji a question, he heard a familiar voice, but more distorted.

"Well, well, well. What do we have here? Two crooks who don't know their place!" The voice revealed itself to be Kamoshida in gown, clearly belonging to a king, and a crown. "I'll dispose of you, and once I do I'll deal with _Niijima_." He said, trying to enrage Ren.

He succeeded. "YOU BASTARD! DON'T YOU DARE TOUCH HER!" Ren yelled almost at the top of his voice.

"Right, I'm so intimidated." He taunted. "Well then let's begin, the _execution_." He said when two soldiers in silver armour walked up behind him. 

The one on the left picked up Ren by the shoulder, and pinned him against the wall. He took his hand off his shoulder and brought a sword to his neck. **"You better not move, or I will slash your neck open."** He had a more distorted voice than Kamoshida did. **"And once I do, you'll be ahead of Sakamoto in your execution."** The other did the same and put his sword to Ren's neck.

"Well then let's start with you _Sakamoto_." He said with poison. He lifted his left fist and punched Ryuji in the gut.

"Agh!" Ryuji shouted in pain. He looked at Ren. "D-dude. You need to." He spat out saliva. "You need to get out of here." He said weekly. 

"Wow, you're going to run? That's sad, Sakamoto's only friend and he's running away." Kamoshida taunted with an evil grin. "Guards, lower your swords and let him go." With a wave of his hand, they lowered their swords, put their backs to the wall, and looked straight towards the opposite wall. Ren could see that they had a weird mask, like the golden soldier on the pillar.

Then, there was a ghostly blue butterfly. A voice whispered and repeated the phrase he's heard so many times in his dream. " _This is truly an unjust game, your chances of winning are little to none. But if my voice is reaching you, then there might still be a chance. You will feel a power, don't be afraid, call for it. It is the only way you can save your friend's._ "

Suddenly, there was another voice. It sounded like his own, but a little deeper. ' **_Is that really what you're going to do? Abandon your friend's life to save your own? Was saving that woman a mistake then?'_ **The voice pressured.

Ren took a minute to think. ' _No it wasn't a mistake.'_

"KAMOSHIDA, YOUR RAIN OF TERROR ENDS HERE!" He yelled out.

Kamoshida stopped in his tracks. "What was that you piece of shit?" He turned around showing his utterly pissed off face. "You just signed up to die a truly painful death."

With a snap of his fingers, the two guards turned and slammed him to the wall. Ren closed his eyes from the pain.

' **_Now trickster, I am thou, thou art I, unleash my power to crush your foes at each turn!'_ ** The voice yelled at him. 

Then, there was a gust of wind. It pushed back the soldiers. Then Ren's face felt heavy. He opened them and saw borders around his eyes. He realised there was a mask on him.

He tried to take it off his face. The mask wouldn't leave his face. ' _Is this super glued?'_

He started to get it off his face, until part of his skin started to peel off. While it hurt, he trusted the voice, he had to do this.

He ripped off his mask from his face. Ren screamed in pain. He put his head down in pain. Blood was now all over his face, falling onto the floor. However, he looked up, with the most menacing smirk anyone in the room has ever seen. His eyes were now yellow. The blood then turned into blue fire that engulfed his body. It even had a smirk of its own. The fire separated from Ren. Leaving him with a grey vest, a black cloak, and up his sleeve he had a knife.

The flame manifested into a demon with a classy outfit, including a hat, and two jet black wings. He had nails that looked as sharp as a cat's, and to top it all off, it had knives on both of it's shoes.

Ren called forth the demon's name. "Ravage them Arsène!" And with a snap of his own fingers, Arsène released two flame's of darkness. They quickly worked their way toward the guards. Unfortunately they dodged the attack, and turned into a puddle of goo.

They sprouted as a Jack-O-Lantern holding a lantern and a fairy looking creature. " **That's it, you'll feel the full force of Kamoshida's men right now!"** Jack spoke.

Ren flicked his wrists and out popped the knife. "Let's see how long you last." He taunted as he pointed the knife at it

**_"Trickster."_ ** Spoke Arsène. " **_The time has come for you to defeat your foes. Either use the power I just demonstrated, 'Eiha', or use your knife to slash them in half."_ **

Ren nodded. He quickly went over to Jack, who was too slow to react, and used his knife to slash it multiple times, defeating it. He even stole the keys it was holding. He looked at the fairy and used Eiha. It instantly dropped to the floor and died.

"Guess it was more fly than fairy." He joked, he then looked at Ryuji. "Here's the keys." He tossed them to Ryuji.

Ren and Ryuji left the cell. They pushed Kamoshida into it, locked the cell, and Ryuji threw the key into a nearby river.

Across the river was another group of cells. To the right of the cells, in the corner was a stairway leading up. Ryuji and Ren jumped across the river using some cells that were on the river bed, and went up the stairs.

"HELP!" A voice screamed in desperation.

"Who else is down here?" Ryuji asked out loud.

"Makoto, she must be on the next floor. Let's hurry." Ren calmly said

\------------------------------------------------------------

Makoto put her head down in despair. ' _I hope Ren's okay. I heard some screams.'_ She looked around her cell again. Then she heard footsteps. She turned toward the stairs and saw a black bed hair walking up the stairs.

' _Ren got out? How?'_ She wondered, until the figure moved up higher. This figure resembled Ren's body, except for the fact that his eyes were as red as her own. This person also had a mask with color's resembling Buchi-kun.

"Makoto!" The figure apparently knew her name. "I'm glad you're ok." The figure said with a smile.

' _Who is this and how… wait for that voice.'_ She thought for a moment.

"Ren? Is that you?" She asked, hoping she wasn't wrong.

"Yep! Ryuji is right here with me!" He said pointing him out.

Makoto for a second was sad that it wasn't just Ren saving her. She then responded "Thank goodness you're ok. How did you get out, and more importantly, how are you going to get me out?" 

"My Persona defended myself and Ryuji from a few guards, he grabbed the keys, and we left. Step back, I'll break the lock so you can escape." He reached for the mask he had on.

"Wait what's a Pers-?"

He removed his mask, and out appeared a demon in a fancy outfit.

"Arsène! Eiha!" Ren snapped his fingers, and the demon shot out a red and black, fire ball looking thing, and it zipped over to the lock, it rusted, then it broke.

"Oh, that's a Persona." She looked at the lock seeing that it was turned to rust. She turned to her right and saw a spiral staircase going up. "Ren, Ryuji, there's a staircase going up over here!" She pointed. "Do you guys need help getting over here?" She yelled.

Ren looked to where Makoto was pointing. He put his hand on his chin to think. He then summoned Arsène, who grabbed Ryuji and flew him across.

"OW!" Ryuji landed on his butt. "That hurt! You mind being more gentle next time?" He told the Persona.

" **_Apologies Ryuji, I'll make sure to give you a cushion next time."_ **Arsène flew back, grabbed Ren, and flew across again.

' _He can speak. He has the same amount of sass Ren has. Is this a dream?'_ She asked herself, closing her eyes and putting her hand on her chin.

_'_ **_Only if you allow it to be one.'_ **

Makoto opened her eyes and looked around. "Ren, Ryuji, did any of you say something?" She asked, a little confused.

"Yeah. Ryuji started to get angry at Arsène, because of the landing, and I told him it was an accident." Ren walked to the stairs and asked. "You two ready? Let's go up."

\------------------------------------------------------------

They went up to what looked like a drawbridge and a strange bust of Kamoshida. Unfortunately, the drawbridge was closed, and Ryuji refused to be flown to the other side again.

"Hey!." A voice from the left of them in a cell called.

Ren, Makoto, and Ryuji walked up to the cell and looked down to see a cat. "Aw, hey little guy, how'd you get locked down here?" Ren asked.

"What is he doing?" Ryuji asked as he looked at Ren who was kneeling in front of the cat.

"He really likes cats. Sometimes he even acts like them. I wonder if he's stopped doing that." Makoto reminisced.

"Hey! Don't think I didn't hear that Brownie!" The cat hissed.

"Aww, Makoto you made the cat angy." Ren spoke as if he was talking to a baby.

"It can talk? Ok then, this proves it. I'm dreaming." Ryuji said.

"Stupid Blondie! I'm not a cat!" The Not-Cat hissed again.

"If you're not a cat, then why do you look exactly like a cat, except you're standing up and you have a mask on?" Ren chimned in, after he had snapped back to normal.

"Well… I look like this because I've been cursed! Yeah, cursed to look like this. I know that if I steal Kamoshida's treasure, I'll turn back into my human form!" The cat declared.

"Ok then, Mr. Not-cat, What is your name then." Makoto asked, trying not to insult him.

"You guys can call me Morgana." He said proudly.

"This is Makoto, this one here is Ryuji, and I'm Ren." He introduced.

"Alright then, help me out of this cell and I'll help you guys leave." He offered.

Ren broke the lock, Morgana walked out and stretched. "Freedom has never tasted so good!" 

Ren squated next to Morgana and started petting him. "Makoto! He's so fluffy and soft!" He invited Makoto to pet him as well.

Makoto went over to Morgana and started to pet him. "Wow, you're right, he's actually really nice to pet. A real stress reliever." She said, Morgana seemed to be enjoying this.

"W-wait, guys can I pet him?" Ryuji asked as he got close.

"Don't even think about it Blondie!" Morgana hissed. He shook off Makoto and Ren, and ran toward the drawbridge. He stopped in front of it and started jumping to reach the bust of Kamoshida.

"Um, what are you doing?" Ryuji asked what everyone was thinking.

"I'm trying to reach the lever! Don't you know anything about castles and drawbridges!" He responded. Ren went up and lifted Morgana up and let him lower the lever. "Thanks Frizzle!"

"Frizzle? My name is Ren." He reminded

"Uh, I knew that!" Morgana said, clearly not knowing.

\------------------------------------------------------------

The four crossed the bridge. On the other side a guard stood ready to strike. 

"I know you four! You're all prisoners here!" He turned into a pile of goo and transformed into two Jack-o-Lantern looking creatures.

Makoto took a step backwards. "W-what is that thing!?" Makoto asked Ren.

"Well you see, that's a-." Ren started

"It's a shadow. Basically they're the protectors of a palace, which is where we are in. I'll explain more to you guys later." Morgana said, interrupting Ren. 

"I'll take care of them!" Ren said in a surprisingly deep voice. "Arsène! Ravage them!" And with a snap of his fingers, the black and red fire ball crashed into its target. 

While it clearly did damage, the Jack went in to attack Ren. However Morgana stopped it with a sword clearly bigger than his whole body.

"I knew it." The not cat spoke. "You really are an amature, any experienced Persona user, like myself, would know about type advantages." He spoke with confidence.

"To be fair, Ren just got his Perso-thingy like 10 minutes ago." Ryuji defended.

Morgana looked shocked, then he quickly composed himself. "I-I knew that! I was just about to teach him the ropes of how to use a Persona. You see, almost every shadow has a specific weakness, I've found that these ones are weak to wind, which just so happens to be what my Persona uses."

Ryuji felt a chill go down her spine. "You ain't gonna rip your face off like Ren did, right?" Clearly hoping that wouldn't happen

"Why of course not! You see, with my level of expertise, I'm able to use my Persona without using a mask." He put his hands on his hips, looked up, and yelled. "Watch and learn Ren! ZORRO! SHOW YOUR MIGHT!". 

With that, a swordsman with a giant chest and skinny legs appeared. He had a "Z" on his belt and a sword that was half his size. Makoto could vaguely see blue skin under Zorro's mask.

"Zorro use garu!" Ordered Morgana. Zorro pointed his sword toward Jack. A gust of wind sprouted from the sword and blew Jack, destroying it. "With this momentum, I'll use a follow up attack!" Once again Zorro used garu and destroyed the other one.

"I have a lot to learn." Ren looked past where the guard had fallen. "We should continue forward." He said before going across the bridge, followed by the rest.

\------------------------------------------------------------

They made it into a central hall of sorts. In the middle a Songstress that wore a green shirt and pants. She had a golden jacket of some sort. She was playing a sitar while her ribbons danced behind her. " **It would seem like the little vermin has escaped and befriended the thieves here.** " She spoke.

It didn't bother to turn into goop. Instead it started attacking them. It strumed it's sitar. The song seemed sweet at first. Until she played the wrong note. Makoto's neck felt a horrible pain go through her. As if the wrong note hurt her.

" **Now, you will feel the pain that I feel everyday!"** The songstress said, continuing to play completely off beat. Leaving the four on the floor unable to stand.

"Now! Arsène!" A voice called. And suddenly the music of pain stopped.

Makoto looked up and saw that Ren had managed to take off his mask and summoned his Persona, who kicked the sitar out of the songstress' hands and had ripped it apart.

" **You annoying brat!"** The songstress reached out and reformed it's sitar. She was prepared to fight now

Arsène put up a good fight. He slashed, used curse, and kicked it. But the songstress was too much for him to handle as it dodged, blocked, and countered his attacks. Ren tried to slash at it with Arsène using his knife. But the songstress proved too fast for either to catch.

Morgana had tried to attack her in the back. Using Zorro, launching himself with guru but was blocked and thrown by the ribbons.

The songstress knocked both down using her ribbons. Makoto had had enough. "Stop right there you bastard!" She yelled slowly getting up.

" **Your strongest warriors have been bested. Your only hope now is to follow my orders."** She taunted.

' _She's right.'_ She looked back at Ren and Morgana on the floor, attempting to get up. _'I need to help. But how could I? It's hopeless.'_

Suddenly, her head felt as if it was going to split open. She gripped her head from the pain. A voice called out to her. ' **_This is the extent of your power? I thought you wanted to save him.'_ **

Her head pounded. Makoto was losing her footing. She regained it by powerfully planting her foot into the tile of the castle, cracking it. She knew the answer to the question. But she needed to go past her limits. She needed to save Ren.

' **_Very well, I am Thou, Thou art I. Unleash my power, together we will save the ones you love and many more. You'll save_ ** **_him_ ** **_.'_ ** The voice encouraged.

She looked up. "Right then, it's time!" She gripped the mask that had placed itself on her face. Ripping it off, she gave a pained scream, until it was silenced with a smile making the songstress tremble.

A blue flame circled around her, replacing her Shujin uniform with a skin-tight, dark blue, and black suit. She had a black scarf around her neck, white gloves, shoulder and knee spikes. Makoto's Persona manifested under her, placing her in a seat.

"A motorcycle? That's so cool." Ren praised.

"This is my power. My Persona, Johanna! Heal Ren!" She ordered.

A green circle began to glow under Ren, who slowly began to regain his strength. "Alright then, let's see what Johanna can do." He said getting ready to summon Arsène.

She looked down at Johanna. "Alright, Johanna, show us what you can do. Frei!" 

Johanna responded by using a move that summoned blue sphere's circling around the songstress, who was intrigued. Suddenly the spheres stopped and rushed toward the songstress at high speeds, creating an explosion.

The songstress grunted in pain. " **You bratt. How dare you attack me like that, I've kept you all alive long enough. DIE!"** She rushed toward the group.

Makoto rushed toward their enemy. She jumped off Johanna, she used frei behind her, propelling herself toward the songstress, and punched her straight in the back. Knocking the songstress down and defeating her.

As she stood, she turned toward the boys who were left stunned. "W-what?" She asked nervously.

Ryuji was the first one to answer. "That was so effing cool! Remind me to never make you angry." He said, almost proudly.

"That was-." Ren's voice cracked. He cleared his throat and started to speak again. "Those were some nice moves Makoto. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little jealous." Ren gave Makoto a thumbs up. "But we should really get moving. Lead the way Morgana."

\------------------------------------------------------------

Morgana led them to a room with a few tables, chairs, and a bookshelf. 

"How the eff are we supposed to get out of here? There's no way out!" Ryuji began to panic.

Morgana looked at Ryuji with disappointment. "Well I was going to tell you to-."

"Go through that giant vent above the bookshelf." Ren pointed out.

"See blonde! Frizzle, I mean Ren, knows how to sneak around." Morgana looked up at Ren with a grin.

"Should we tell him it was an obvious escape route?" Makoto whispered to Ren who shook his head.

"I guess this is where we part ways." Morgana said. "Thanks for the help!"

"No problem Morgana. Don't get caught again." Ren teased.

Morgana was about to say something when. "Yo! Ren, Prez! Are we leaving or not?" Ryuji asked from the vent.

Ren turned back, "Yeah! Give us a second." He said before helping Makoto into the vent.

Before he was able to leave the vent, he heard Morgana say something to himself. "They cou- use. Esp- Ren and Makoto."

\------------------------------------------------------------

"Welcome back to the real world." The sound came from Ren's phone.

Makoto looked around them. "We're outside, in front of the school?"

"I guess my phone transported us into and out of the castle thing." Ren said, looking at his phone.

"I don't know about you guys, but I'm tired. I gotta go home and think about what just happened. See you!" Ryuji said, rushing toward the station.

Ren looked at Makoto. "That was… an experience." He put his hand on his head and felt his glasses. "Oh, I guess they turned into my mask."

"Ren, I want to go back there." Makoto told him. "I don't know what that place could be, but it's connected to Kamoshida in some way. If it is, then the school is covering up for what he's doing, whatever it might be. As student council president I feel that it's my responsibility to help students." She turned toward Ren. "I don't want to go alone. Please Ren, come with me-"

"Okay." He responded before she could finish.

"I know it will… what?" She expected him to try to convince her to not go.

"I said, 'Okay.' I'm going with you, you'll need all the help you could get." Ren looked at her with a friendly grin.

"S-so we're in agreement then?" Makoto asked to be reassured.

"Yes, let's go home before it gets dark." Ren started to go opposite to the station.

"Ren, you're going the wrong way." She pointed out. Ren turned around, revealing that had an embarrassed look on his face. "Would you like me to walk you to your station?" She offered.

"Yes please."

\------------------------------------------------------------

Once Makoto got home, she was greeted with the empty silence of her home once again. ' _Sis isn't home again?'_ She sighed and started to prepare her dinner.

Once she finished her dinner, she checked her phone and saw 2 messages were sent. One from Sae and the other was from Ren.

She opened Sae's first.

<Sis> I'm going to be working for longer than usual.

<Sis> I'll most likely be busy today and tomorrow.

<Sis> So I won't be eating dinner, no need to prepare me anything.

<Makoto> Ok, see you whenever you get home.

She sighed to herself. ' _I guess I'm having sis' half tomorrow.'_ She then checked Ren's message.

<Ren> Hey Beep-Boop just wanted to see if this worked. 

_'Of course he used that name'_

<Ren> Also, did you get home safely?

<Makoto> Yes, I did get home safely RenRen.

<Ren> That's great! 

<Ren> I think I'm going to bed in a little bit.

<Makoto> Oh, then goodnight.

<Ren> Goodnight to you too Makoto :)

She closed her phone feeling better than she did typing to Sae. ' _Ren's a better guardian than Sae.'_ Makoto joked to herself

She figured she should follow Ren's example and go to sleep as well.

\------------------------------------------------------------

Makoto opened her eyes and was shocked by the fact that she was in a prison. The color was all velvet blue, there were two little girls near her cell, and one teenage looking boy behind the two, who then all moved to the side. Revealing an old man with a long nose in the center

"This is an unexpected turn of events." He spoke with a deep voice.

"Who are all of you, and why am I in a cell?" However her question was merely laughed at.

"I understand you are confused, so allow me to explain. Welcome to the velvet room, a place that exists between dream and reality, mind and matter. You have been brought here by fate." He paused for a minute to let her process everything that was said.

"So, I'm asleep in the real world and this is all a dream?" She asked.

"You're way smarter than our other inmate. I'm impressed." The girl on the right spoke.

"What other inmate?"

"An inmate named Ren Amamiya." The one on the left spoke, checking her notebook.

"Ren? He's been here?" 

"Yes. In fact he's here right now." The boy spoke.

Makoto looked around the room. "What do you mean? I don't-."

"This place again?" Ren's voice asked in annoyance.

"I see you've decided to join us. This is very inconvenient. To have two members of the velvet room in separate areas. Next time we meet, you will be in the same cell." Igor assured.

"Igor, who else is here?" They were not only in seperate cells, but they were right next to each other.

"I-I am here Ren." She shyly said.

"Oh, hey Makoto. What'd you do to end up here?" 

She was about to respond when Igor interrupted her. "Moving on, it seems fate was kind to us and gave us two wild card users. As the both of you already ventured into the metaverse, you should know what your next objective should be." He pointed to the twins. "Justine and Caroline are going to be assisting you in the very near future."

"How will they help? Whack the shadows when we call for them?" Ren asked.

"I will not reveal their use at this time. Just know," Everything in the room began to fade, and an alarm rang. "not all conflicts can be solved through violence." 

Then, her vision went dark. She felt as if something was waking her up, like an alarm.  
  


____________

[???] - rank 2


	5. Warning Flags

4/12 

Ren was on the subway when he got a text from Makoto.

<Beep-Boop> Ren, did you happen to have a dream about a prison?

<Beep-Boop> Specifically a blue prison?

<Ren> You mean the velvet room?

<Beep-Boop> Then it wasn't only a dream.

<Beep-Boop> We were there.

<Ren> Well technically we weren't.

<Beep-Boop> You know what I mean.

<Ren> Since it's between "Dream and reality, mind and matter."

<Beep-Boop> ...Anyway, could you tell me about the names of everyone in there?

<Ren> Igor didn't introduce you?

<Beep-Boop> No.

<Ren> A little weird.

<Ren> Anyways, the one on the left is Justine, on the right is Caroline, and the guy that looks like me is Victor.

<Beep-Boop> What?

<Ren> You know, the guy in the back.

<Ren> I wonder why he looks like me.

<Beep-Boop> Anyway, we are going there again, right?

<Ren> Yep, see you soon.

Ren turned off his phone and was reminded that his presence was not appreciated.

"Oh no, it's him!"

"I hope he doesn't try to mug me. Or worse."

"You know, I hear he once killed 10 people because they snitched on him."

"What was he doing?"

"He was selling-"

' _And that's all I'm going to be listening to today. Why would any human being even think about doing that? The worst thing anyone could do.'_ He was getting tired of all the rumors going around about him that didn't even make sense.

"Hey man! How's it going?" Ren turned around, seeing that Ryuji had greeted him.

"Hey Ryuji, it's going. How are you?" He answered.

"Oh y'know, trying to live with the bull shrimp these people are spouting about you. Rumors are so dumb, you're the coolest guy I've met in all my years at Shujin." He tried and succeeded to cheer up Ren.

"You make it sound like you've been here for 30 years. Also 'Bull Shrimp', 'Eff'? Why the weird exchanges for curse words?" They continued walking, waiting to get closer to the gate so that nobody could hear them speak.

Ryuji's eyes looked behind him for a second. "...I'll tell you later. Anyways, we should totally 'hang out' after school." He made quotes with his fingers. "We should figure out where to go during lunch, on the roof." Ren agreed and they went inside.

\------------------------------------------------------------

Makoto opened her notebook. ' _Ok, we're going to need some evidence to take him down. We don't even know if it's even real. So let's start somewhere.'_ She wrote down a few ideas on where they could start investigating. 

She crossed out the ideas that were dangerous or just plain stupid. Until there was a knock on the door. Specifically, the knock Ren and Makoto made up when they were kids. "Come in Ren." 

"I'm surprised to know you still remember our secret knock, it's been ages since I've used it myself." He chuckled.

"I've had it in the back of my mind for the same amount of time myself. So, what do I owe the pleasure of you visiting me~?" She said with a slight flirt to her words.

"Well other than seeing your smile, I've thought of a good plan we could use. Since we have access to _that_ place, we could use it to find out about Kamoshida." He suggested.

Makoto looked down at her ideas. "Well, I've been thinking, we could use a combination of both the real world and… what did Igor call it again? The metaverse?" Ren nodded.

"That's a good plan. We should continue this later. See ya then!" Ren waved and left the room.

Leaving Makoto to process what just happened. _'Oh my god, I flirted with Ren.'_ She put her hand on her face to hide her ever-growing tomato face and internally screamed. ' _He didn't seem bothered by it at least. He even played along. Or maybe he wasn't trying to be rude. I must have looked like a fool.'_

\------------------------------------------------------------

Ren walked out of the student council office trying to keep his composure. However, on the inside, he was screaming. ' _Makoto just flirted with me and I flirted back!'_

_'Maybe she did it on accident, you know how she can unintentionally say stuff that others believe is flirting. When in reality it's her being socially unaware of what she's saying.'_ His rational part argued.

"I can't believe it, the rumors are true!"

"No way, he must be blackmailing her somehow."

"Yeah, you must be right. The student council president and the criminal transfer student can't be friends, let alone dating"

Ren chuckled. ' _Yep, I couldn't possibly be friends with a lovable dork like Makoto_.' He thought, completely ignoring the other thing that was said.

Ren sighed to himself. He closed his eyes for a few seconds when he saw for a brief moment, his surroundings. He could see the edges of his glasses, the walls of the school, the part of the wall that turns toward the right, and the girl he was about to run into-.

Ren fell on his butt and opened his eyes to see that it was a girl with black hair tied in a ponytail with a pink elastic band with bangs parted to her left and two grey hairpins.

"I'm sorry, didn't see where I was going." He reached for her hand to help her up.

She looked up and hesitantly took his hand. "A-actually, I'm sorry. I was sort of running and I didn't see where I was going and… wait are you the transfer student? What am I saying, of course you are." She looked down and began picking up her papers she dropped.

Ren bent down and began to help her. "Here you go." Returning the papers to her. "My name is Ren Amamiya by the way. So if you could not call me 'the transfer student' that would be great."

"Alright, I'm Shiho Suzui. It's nice to meet you, I've heard a few things about you from Ann. All good of course, no rumors. Only facts." She gave him a thumbs up. "Anyways, I got to get to class before the bell rings. So thanks again." She said before running off.

Ren gave a small grin. ' _That went well. I think I could get along with her.'_ He then saw a cast on her right leg. ' _A cast? What happened to her? I'll ask Ann when I see her again.'_ He thought heading toward his class.

\------------------------------------------------------------

Ren got to his class, seeing Ann already in her seat as bored as always. Ann looked up at Ren. "Oh, hey! Shiho just texted me about your first meeting!"

He whispered so that the other students wouldn't hear. "Yeah, actually about Suzui-san. I was wondering, how did she get those scars?" He watched as Ann's face darkened a bit. "I'm asking because I'm worried she might be in danger of some sort."

"You _don't_ want to get involved in this. Please stop asking about that." She said returning to her usual bored self.

Ren looked at her in confusion, as her response only brought up more questions. He decided to respect her wishes and agreed. However, he wouldn't let it go unnoticed.

<Ren> Hey Makoto, could you keep an eye on a student named Shiho Suzui for me please?

<Beep-Boop> Sure. But may I ask why?

<Ren> She had a few bruises on her face and a cast on her right leg.

<Ren> I asked her best friend, Ann Takamaki, and she said "You don't want to get involved with this"

<Beep-Boop> Oh.

<Beep-Boop> An odd request from Takamaki-san. It might even be involved with Kamoshida.

<Ren I was thinking the same thing.

<Beep-Boop> Since Suzui-san is in the volleyball team which is the club Kamoshida instructs.

<Ren> Oh, I didn't know that.

<Beep-Boop> I'll ask Haru to do the same.

<Ren> Thank you.

Ren put his phone away as the bell rang.

\------------------------------------------------------------

Lunch soon came quickly and Ren went up to the roof as Ryuji told him to. This time Ryuji was there. "Hey man!" He greeted.

"Hey Ryuji. How's it going?" Ren greeted back.

"Not much. Been living life the way I want. Y'know how it is. How about you? Been hanging out with your g i r l f r i e n d?" He teased.

"ANYWAYS! What did you want to talk about?" He desperately did not want to talk about that.

"Ah right, I was asking yah if we could go back. Y'know, to that place you, Prez, and I went to." Ryuji suggested.

"Oh, actually Makoto and I were going today. Would you like to come with us? Maybe we'll run into the cat again." Ren offered.

"Hell yeah!"

"Sweet, I'll text her in a bit. Which reminds me." Ren took out his phone. "If we're all going to be working together, you should give me your phone number and chat information so I could make a group with the three of us." 

"Yeah! That'll make it way easier to stay in touch instead of us having to sneakily talk to each other." Ryuji gave Ren his phone number and chat information.

\------------------------------------------------------------

Makoto looked down at her phone and saw a new message

|Ren created a group chat.|

|Ren added Ryuji and Makoto to the chat.|

<Makoto> What is this chat for?

<Ren> Ryuji wanted to go to the palace thing, so I thought that it would be easier for all of us to go together.

<Ren> I created this group chat so that we could stay in touch easier.

<Makoto> I see. That would be helpful.

<Ryuji> Yah! We could even schedule hangout spots!

<Ryuji> Anyways, when you guys going?

<Ren> Today

<Makoto> Today after school.

<Ryuji> … wow, didn't expect you both to answer at the same time.

Makoto looked up from her phone to continue eating. Haru eventually sat with her. "Hello Mako-chan. How are you?"

"I'm doing fine. Ren and I were actually just chatting earlier today."

Haru looked at Makoto with a bit of worry. "I see. May I ask, where did you go yesterday? I texted you after school and you didn't respond."

"My phone ran out of batteries. So I went over to Lablanc with Ren, that's where Ren is living, and we spent the day chatting. I then realized that it was getting late, and went home." She made up.

"I see, and what did you chat about? Did you ask him, 'Ren, I like you a lot. Can we please go on a date?'" Haru grinned evilly.

Makoto, very embarrassed, looked away from Haru. "N-no! We were just catching up on what happened to us in the past years."

"If you say so. Oh, when you and Ren do start dating could you please tell me!" Haru requested.

As Makoto was gathering her stuff to go back to class, she remembered what Ren asked her to do. "Haru, could you keep an eye on a student named Shiho Suzui?"

Haru tilted her head a little. "Why Mako-chan? Do you suspect she might try to make a move on Ren?"

Makoto heated up again. "No! Ren talked to her earlier and wanted me to keep an eye on her. She apparently had bruises on her face and a cast on her right leg. Ren was worried something might be wrong, and so am I."

"Mako-chan, I was only kidding, of course I'll help. Ren is quite the gentleman for wanting to protect someone he doesn't even know." Haru thought out loud.

Makoto thanked Haru for helping her keep an eye on Shiho then. She then opened her phone one last time before entering the class to message Ren.

<Makoto> Heads up, any texts/calls that happen when we're in that world are completely turned off and the notification/voice message are deleted.

<Ren> Oh.

<Ryuji> For reals? Why?

<Makoto> How would I know? I didn't make that world.

<Makoto> Which reminds Ren, how would you describe the app's icon?

<Ren An eye in the middle and the whole thing is red and black.

<Ryuji> wait. I got that on my phone too!

<Makoto> So it's not just Ren and me.

Makoto put her phone away as class started.

\------------------------------------------------------------

When school ended, the three met in front of Shujin. "Actually, we should move somewhere else. We don't want anyone else getting in the range of this thing." Ren suggested.

"There's a little alleyway over here that we can enter from." Ryuji led them toward the alley.

"Ok, let's see." Makoto opened the app, finding that it had a microphone option and three spaces. There was another tab that said 'History' she tapped it and saw the name of the place. "Guys, there's a search history here. Apparently, the place we were in was Kamoshida's palace." Makoto tapped it and the three were once again in front of the palace. 

"Alright, let's get started." Ren said as he began to walk toward the entrance.

"Woah! You guys are already in your outfit things. Ren, why do you have elf shoes?" Ryuji pointed out.

Ren looked down. "You jealous or something?" He said.

"N-no! They just look weird." Ryuji defended himself.

"It sounds like your jealous Blonde!" A cat-like voice declared. "Hold your applause, I know you're all very glad to see me again. But why are you here?" He asked arrogantly.

"We need to find actual evidence of Kamoshida doing awful things. Without it, we can't bring him to justice." Makoto told the cat.

Morgana thought for a second. "Alright, how about this. I will help you with this Kamoshida guy. In return, you guys help me get my human body back!" Morgana offered.

Makoto thought for a second. "I don't know, I think Ren and I can easily take anyone that stands in our way."

Morgana looked shocked. "What? The deal is totally fair for both of us!"

Ren pulled Makoto to the side. "We need to talk this through. Ryuji, Morgana, why don't you guys chat for a little bit." He then led Makoto away from earshot. "Makoto we should take this deal."

"Think about it Ren, we don't know anything about Morgana. If he were to take human form, he could possibly become a problem." She tried to convince.

"True, but there are 2 of us. I think we can easily take him, especially with your aikido training." Ren reminded. "He also clearly knows more about this whole metaverse and Persona deal." He argued.

Makoto sighed and put her hand on her chin to help her think. "You're not letting this go are you?"

"Nope, this is our chance to be friends with a talking cat." He convinced her.

She went over what they needed and what Morgana was offering once again in her head. "How about this, we get more information about palaces and Personas. In return, we help him get his human form back?"

Ren thought for a moment and nodded. They both went back to find Ryuji and Morgana talking to each other. "So Morgana," Makoto started. "Ren and I have talked it over, and we would like to say that we made up a few more terms. We will receive your help in gaining information on Kamoshida and learn more about the Palace and Personas. In return, we will help you gain a human form."

Morgana didn't even wait. "Yes!" He said in an oddly scared voice.

Ren started to make his way to the vent. "Guys, we don't have all day. Let's go!"

\------------------------------------------------------------

Morgana led them to a door that wasn't previously open. "Alright, lesson 1 about Palace's, there can and most likely will be changes. As you remember, this door was not open before. That means the Kamoshida only allowed certain people to enter. Now that it's open, it means whatever he's doing beyond this door in the real world, is going to be shown to the public." They entered the door, finding out that there was a simple volleyball court.

"That's it? Morgan, I thought you said there would be something here that would blow our case open!" Ryuji said in a betrayed voice.

" _Morgana!_ Also, I didn't say that. There might not be anything here right now, but maybe there could be a secret passageway somewhere. We just need to find it." Morgana started taping the walls, and Ryuji did the same.

Ren's head began to hurt so he closed his eyes. When his eyes were closed, he saw color. He saw that Ryuji, Makoto, and Morgana were green. While the shadows were yellow. He opened his eyes and saw everyone back to their normal color.

Makoto saw that Ren was a bit freaked out. "Ren, is there something wrong?"

"I think I just saw the world as neon lights. Ren closed his eyes again confirming it. Then he looked at the wall opposite to them, and saw an orange outline. "Makoto, punch through the wall in front of us."

Makoto went up to the wall and punched it. The wall came crumbling down, revealing a hidden passageway. "Woah. How did you know it was here Ren?" She asked, mesmerized. 

"I closed my eyes and saw an orange outline around this area." He explained. "Actually everything was outlined in color, we were green, and these guys playing volleyball were yellow." Ren looked at Morgana expecting an explanation.

Morgana merely looked at him in shock. "You can do that!? I don't even think that's something a regular Persona user can do. It's like a third eye or something!" Morgana praised.

"Let's proceed." Makoto said, taking the lead.

\------------------------------------------------------------

As they ran, Ren was about to turn a corner when they saw two shadows looking opposite of each other. "Perfect! I'm going to be able to teach you how to sneak!" Morgana got close to a corner laid on his belly and went dark. He emerged from the darkness.

Ren went over to the corner and peeked over. "I think I get this." 

Morgana laid under Ren's legs, lightly purring. "The weird part of palaces is that whenever you go near a corner, you get stealthy." Morgana explained.

Makoto tried it out. She got into a plank position putting her arm on Ren's leg for balance. "So, how are we going to get past them?"

Ren went back behind the wall that was hiding them and sat. Makoto doing the same to think. "Maybe if we had some sort of projectile to throw. I don't think it's a good idea to throw our weapons at them. It would be dumb to use our magic when we really don't need to."

"Not to mention this place is void of pebbles we could throw." Makoto added.

"Actually, I have an idea." Ryuji said. All attention immediately went to him. "Well you see, I brought these guns to scare the armor guys. They're models though so they can't actually." He took out a model pistol and revolver.

"You brought these to school?" Makoto looked at him with silent disappointment.

"I didn't get them out of my bag I promise." Ryuji said, pleading for his life.

"We are going to have a serious talk later." She grabbed the revolver. Leaving Ryuji absolutely terrified.

Ren patted Ryuji on the back. "You'll get used to that. I recommend not doing anything stupid."

"Yeah, she's like a mom." Morgana said behind Ren. "Oh, and by the way, don't throw the guns. Use them like you would a normal gun."

"Why? They're models." Ryuji looked at the cat with a confused face.

Ren angled his gun so that they would repel behind the guards. He pulled his trigger and out popped a bullet. It had the intended result. 

Ren turned the corner and Arsène began to speak. " **_Trickster, grab their mask. You'll be able to forcibly turn them into shadows."_ **Ren did what his Persona advised. 

The shadow turned into goop and popped out a fairy the other soldier was about to join when Makoto rushed and took its mask revealing another fairy.

Ren quickly downed both of them since they were weak to curse and their guns. He was about to shoot both of them when one fairy came up to him.

**_"Please, don't shoot me!"_ **It cried.

"Give me a good reason." 

"Wait, Ren, we could use this. This is our chance to get extra items or money." Morgana suggested.

" **_I could give you money! That's what you humans want right?"_ **

"Not interested." Ren loaded his gun and was about to pull the trigger when the shadow began to lightly glow.

" **_Then I could aid you in battle! … Wait, aide, why does that sound familiar?"_ ** Suddenly the fairy began to glow a bright blue. " **_I remember now! I'm not meant to follow Kamoshida! I'm meant to help humanity. Trickster of fate, I am Pixie, I'll give you the strength to continue fighting._ **"

The Pixie turned into a blue ball and flew into Ren's mask. "W-what was that!? I've never seen anything like that!" Morgana went up to Ren to see if anything changed.

"Ren, summon your persona." Makoto said.

Ren gripped his mask, and pulled it. But instead of Arsène appearing, Pixie showed itself. "W-what!? You're able to use multiple Persona's!" Morgana's eyes were as wide open as they could be.

"Incredible. I wonder how many you can hold." Makoto ran toward the corner and looked around it. looked around it. "Everyone, we should continue moving. There could be guards coming to us to investigate the noise."

"Take the lead Morgana." Ren said, waiting for him to go first.

\------------------------------------------------------------

They stumbled upon an area that had a sign above it. It read, 'Now entering the Tunnel of Love'.

Morgana stopped running and looked up at them. "This is the place." They faintly heard a cry of pain, coming from the other side.

"Okay, what's the plan?" Ryuji nervously asked Makoto.

"Morgana and I could wait out here in case any guards come here. You and Ren will go in and investigate. If you can, take pictures or memorize their faces as best as you can." She ordered.

"Alright. Ryuji, stay close to me. Don't want you getting jumped." Ren and Ryuji opened the door. 

They went down a spiral staircase and encountered another soldier. " **Halt, who goes there?** **Wait, I know you two. You escaped from your execution! Well, I'm going to have fun finishing the job!"** It turned into another Jack.

Ren took out his knife. ' _Perfect, now I can practice using different Personas'_

He summoned Pixie and used guru, sending Jack flying back into the wall behind him. "Pixie! Send this Jack to sleep!" He ordered. 

Pixie flew up to Jack, put him to sleep, then launched him back to Ren who stabbed it. When it turned into dust, it left behind a few keys. Ren put them in his pocket.

The screams got louder and louder. They came across another river. Across the river, was another group of cells, which is where the sounds were coming from. They walked toward them to investigate further.

\------------------------------------------------------------

Morgana started to doze off. "Makoto, can we please go with Ren and Ryuji? I'm so bored!" He complained.

"No, as I said before, some more soldiers might come down and try to kill us. Since we have enough people to stay behind and guard and investigate the noise." A wail was heard all the way to the entrance of the dungeon. 

Morgana sighed and pulled out a slingshot and started to aim it around the room. "Who knows, maybe they'll find something cool in there. Like a chest or a will seed."

"What's a will seed?"

Before Morgana could answer, a guard showed up. " **Hey! What the hell do you two think you're doing here!? You're supposed to be dead!"** The soldier decomposed itself and turned into an adult-looking pixie with a green robe.

Makoto summoned Johanna and used frei to no effect. "It's immune to nuclear attacks? Morgana, I'll be relying on you for magic attacks."

Morgana sneaked behind the pixie, took out his slingshot, and fired a rock blowing the pixie back onto the wall. "Alright, it's time to show you what I'm made of!" 

Morgana started running around it, dodging when necessary. He then aimed his slingshot and let go of the rock. " **You think that's going to work on me twice? You must be more foolish than her."** It said, dodging the rock, which went above her.

"Think again." Morgana said. Above the older pixie, appeared Makoto, who elbowed it in the face, blinding the pixie. "Now, I'll teach you about All-out-attacks, when the enemies are all incapable of moving, we attack in unison!" 

Makoto understood, punching and kicking it while Morgana slashed it. Morgana was about to deal the finishing blow when the fairy grabbed and threw him toward Makoto, backs once again on the wall. " **I have to admit, you did a good job damaging me, but unfortunately for you, I can heal myself. Observe."** The fairy summoned a pool of green light that healed her wounds.

"Damn, shadows don't have any limit on how much stamina they have. So unless we can hit it hard enough that it'll stop healing, we'll lose eventually." Morgana muttered.

' _Damn, we need help.'_ She thought, picking herself off the floor. ' _Wait, the velvet room, maybe Igor can help me.'_ She heard a voice.

' _While our master cannot help you directly, he has already given you a gift to help.'_ The voice spoke softly and vaguely.

Makoto propped herself up and pulled her mask. Instead of Johanna, Pixie was summoned.

Morgana was in shock. "WHAT!? You can do this too!?"

Makoto healed Morgana and looked at the shadow. "Alright, round 2!" She yelled.

\------------------------------------------------------------

Ren and Ryuji raced up the stairs. "Dude, why are we running?" Ryuji asked.

"For two reasons, first we need to tell Makoto and Morgana what we found. The second is that I heard explosions coming from the floor they're on." He said as Ryuji gained on him. 

They made it to the entrance door and kicked it open. Then took out his gun and knife ready to assist. Only instead they found that Makoto and Morgana had already taken care of it. 

"Ren, Ryuji. I've something to show you!" She smiled. Makoto grabbed her mask and summoned Pixie.

Ren's eyes opened all the way. "You can use Pixie? Wait does that mean I can use Johanna?" He tried summoning it but ended up summoning Arsène instead.

"Maybe Arsène and Johanna are Personas that are inseparable from our own lineup." Makoto theorized. "Anyways, what did you two find?"

"Well, once we made it to the actual cells we found Kamoshida's volleyball team being tortured for their practice. But, it was only the guys, none of the girls were there." Ryuji explained.

"Odd, we should investigate when we go back to the real world." Makoto suggested.

"We could ask the members of the volleyball team if they know anything. We should also ask the girls on the team." Ren added. "We should get going." Ren said, leading the way back.

\------------------------------------------------------------

They made it back to the central hall when they were surrounded by a group of guards and Kamoshida himself. "Did you really think I would be so foolish as to send soldiers to defend a place knowing damn well they were going to die?" He cackled.

"Yes." Ren said with a serious expression. 

That pissed Kamoshida off. "You bastards better think twice then!" Kamoshida finally noticed Ryuji. "You have that _coward_ with you? Don't you know he betrayed his whole team?" Kamoshida taunted.

"Shut up." Ryuji said silently.

Kamoshida grinned evilly. "Oh don't worry, star of the track team. I won't tell them how ruined their chances of getting anywhere in life. All because you selfishly attack me for no reason." He stated.

"SHUT UP YOU DAMN ASSHOLE!" Ryuji was ready to punch his teeth out.

"Oops, sorry. The _truth_ just came out of my mouth." Kamoshida continued to taunt.

" **You're so clumsy Kamoshida~."** A seductive voice spoke behind him.

Ann walked in with a robe of her own. Wearing cat ears it was safe to assume that she, like Kamoshida was naked almost under there.

"Meow, she looks so pretty~." Morgana was trapped by her seductiveness.

"Morgana! Now is not the time!" Makoto sounded like she was insulted.

Kamoshida merely laughed at them. "Well, I think I'll leave you in the hands of my men. Guards, kill them." He walked away.

Ren took action summoning Arsène and throwing himself to Kamoshida but was blocked by the guard in golden armor. "Hey, it's the tin can that attacked us in the first place." He landed next to Makoto and Morgana. "This time you won't be so lucky."

The guard turned into a knight on a horse. The knight had a spear and shield, which were, as well as his armor, crimson red. To his side were two bicorns who charged at them. Makoto used Pixie to put them both to sleep.

The beasts didn't even look drowsy and slammed into Ren and Makoto, sending them flying into a wall. " **How foolish of you to assume that Kamoshida's men sleep."**

Morgana used dia to heal Ren and Makoto. "Guys, I have a plan. Just keep them busy for me will ya?" Morgana asked hopping up to the staircase making sure the knight didn't see him.

Ren got up and pointed his gun at the bicorns. "So we have two guns with limited ammo, curse, explosion, heal, and sleep spells with limited stamina." Ren looked at Makoto who had a smirk on her face. "What's the plan?"

The bicorn began to charge at them. " **Prepare to face your doom!** " They spoke in unison.

Makoto summoned Pixie. "We need to use as many sleep spells as we can." She explained to Ren.

Ren summoned Arsène. ' **_Trickster, I have the ability to put them to sleep, command me as you see fit. Be aware however, it uses more stamina than a normal spell."_ ** The demon spoke.

They dodged the attack, causing the bicorn to get stuck in the wall. As they desperately tried to escape, Ren used dream needle to cause one of the bicorns to get too sleepy. While Makoto used slumber, they both withered away due to Insomnia.

They looked back at the knight who had summoned two more bicorns. As they approached Makoto and Ren, a startling sound came from above them. Seconds later Kamoshida came falling with a trident in his hand and Morgana in the other. "This rat was trying to cut the chandeliers above you. Luckily I stopped it." He threw Morgana at Ren, who caught him.

Kamoshida snapped his fingers and the shadows around him got bloodshot eyes. " **Praise Kamoshida! We would've been dead if he didn't help us!"** The bicorn neighed.

Ren looked at Morgana. "What happened? I thought you had it under control!?"

"I did, he was too strong. I tried to use my sword to cut him, but he dodged and lifted me by the neck!" Morgana said, rubbing his neck.

Makoto looked at him with disappointment. "Really? He just picked you up? Why didn't you summon Zorro?"

"I tried! But he took his overgrown fork and made him disappear anytime I did." He meowed.

Makoto sighed. "Right, guess we have to do it ourselves." Makoto turned to Ryuji, who had been fuming since Kamoshida left. "Ryuji, let Morgana lead you out of here. Ren and I will catch up." She said, loading her gun.

"Yeah Sakamoto, run away. Let your friends die. We both know that you'll never be able to beat me! Don't worry, I'll have fun killing your friends here." Kamoshida taunted.

Ryuji's eyes began to spark. "Like hell I'm leaving you guys behind! I won't run from that bastard because threatened someone I care about. Not again!" He shouted.

Ryuji then felt a string of pain go through his head. He gripped it as the pain grew. **_'You made me wait quite a while. You seek power, yes? Then let us form a pact. Since your name has already been disgraced why not hoist the flag and wreak havoc? That is what your other self sorely desires. I am Thou, Thou art I. There is no turning back. The skull of rebellion is your flag henceforth'_ **

Ryuji felt a mask on his face and tore it off, revealing his Persona. Captain Kidd was a skeleton that had a hat, eye patch, and a cape that was attached to his celeste blue shirt with belts. The belts had swords that hung themselves on. He was riding a pirate ship like a skateboard and had a cannon attached to his right hand.

"About time! Let's see what you can do Kidd!" He snapped his fingers and a bolt of lightning hit a Bicorn, causing the knight in the middle to become immobilized. Ryuji looked back realizing that Captain Kidd shot it from his cannon.

Makoto looked suspiciously at Ren. "Don't you da-."

"Quite shocking isn't it Makoto?" He asked smugly.

Makoto sighed, picked up Morgana, and threw him into Captain Kidd's cannon. "Ignoring what Ren said, Ryuji, shoot Morgana into the shadow behind Kamoshida!"

Ryuji nodded, shot Morgana toward the knight. Morgana clung onto it and slashed at its head. The shadow wailed and threw him back to the three. "Nice job Ryuji, you got him spot on!" Morgana praised. 

Kamoshida grabbed the knight by the shoulder. "We'll leave you to our underlings." Then they teleported away.

Ryuji began to run after them, but was stopped by a bicorn. "Get out of my way!" He said summoning a lead pipe from electricity. 

However, he was stopped by Ren and Makoto. "Ryuji, we know how much you want to punch him, but now is not the time." She reasoned.

"Y-yeah, but this could be our chance to get them by surprise." Ryuji argued.

Ren quickly killed the bicorn. "While you have a point Ryuji, we still need to go back and rest. You've just used up a bunch of energy and we don't even know what awaits us ahead." Ren reminded him.

Ryuji was about to argue further, until he took a second to think. He then sighed and looked at Ren. "I guess you're right." He started to walk back when he finally realized his outfit was different.

It had a nice jacket, a red tie, and shotgun ammo on his belt. His back had metal parts that resembled a skeleton's back. His mask resembled a skull and his gloves were yellow. 

"Woah, I look badass!" Ryuji turned toward Ren. "You jealous RenRen? I look way cooler than you." He teased.

Makoto got annoyed at Ryuji's comment. "Ryuji, Ren looks fine. If anything he looks like he's cosplaying as Tuxedo Mask from Sailor Moon."

Ryuji then pointed to Ren's shoes "Then what about his shoes? They look like elf shoes."

Ren between them and started to head back to the palace entrance. "Guys can we stop arguing about who has the better outfit and go." He said exhaustively.

\------------------------------------------------------------

They parted ways with Morgana and exited the palace. "Hey guys, wanna go grab some food?" Ryuji suggested.

Ren was feeling quite famished. "Yeah sure, Makoto you coming with us, or are you going home?"

Makoto looked down at her phone and sighed. Then looked up with a cute grin. "Yes, I have time to go with you guys to eat somewhere."

Ren smiled. "Alright Ryuji, lead the way."

\------------------------------------------------------------

Ryuji led them to a beef bowl shop, and they all ordered some food. "So, since you kind of already saw it with Kamoshida earlier, you two probably want me to explain what happened." He said while they waited for their food.

"I actually am interested, since I wasn't there to help at the time I just assumed that Kamoshida was doing a good job and you acted up." Makoto sounded apologetic.

"It's fine. Nobody in the school apart from the teachers and club members knew what was happening." Ryuji waved off. "So our old coach was fired and nobody knew why. We found out during our next club meeting that the Olympic medalist Kamoshida would be coaching us from then on. We soon found out that he only cared about the volleyball club and made the rest of us work like dogs chasing their tails. So I stood up to him, y'know just tell him to give us a break once in a while. He retaliated by exposing my family's whole situation to the whole club. So after school, I went and told him that that was a dick move." Ryuji looked stressed as he told the next part. "He then threatened to tell the whole school about it. I got angry and tried to hit him. He pushed me onto the ground and broke my legs. He played it off as self-defense." He slammed the table with his fist.

Ren got a bit concerned. "Ryuji, you didn't have to tell us if it felt wrong for you. Besides, you'll get your revenge." Ren smiled.

Ryuji got a bit teary-eyed. "Thanks man. Nice to know that I have two people I could trust. Speaking of which, how did you two meet?"

Makoto smiled at the fond memory that seemed like a dream at that point. "Well, I was being bullied in the courtyard by 4?" She looked at Ren for confirmation.

"I think it might have been three. Anyways the number doesn't matter." Ren said.

"Right, I was being bullied at school for you know, being robotic, liking baby stuff, for being different in general. They took my buchimaru doll and started tossing it around, eventually throwing it upwards. It landed at Ren's feet. So he did what any gentleman would do and gave it back to me. And the rest is history." She finished with a warm smile.

Ryuji looked at them with an eyebrow raised. "So you guys not only met under those conditions, but also became best friends because of it? What are you guys soulmates?" 

Ren trying to avoid the conversation from getting too awkward shifted it to something else as their food arrived. "A-anyways, have I ever told either of you why I'm here?" 

They both shook their heads. "Well then, let me start." He rolled his neck and began.

\------------------------------------------------------------

_I was walking home from a club that drew on for longer than I wanted it to when I heard a voice._

"Stop it! Please stop."

"Shut up before anyone reports this! Get in the damn car!"

_I saw a woman being forcibly pushed into a car by a man. So I walked toward them and tried to stop him._

_The man had a gruff voice and sounded drunk._ "Oh great, a brat is here. Look kid, I don't care why you're here. Leave us alone."

"No. Sir, please step away from this lady, she doesn't consent." _I had tried to reason._

_But the man puffed his chest and said,_ "Right, like you could do anything. News flash, all the police in this country are mine to control." _Only more vulgar._

_The man tried to push me, tripped, and hurt his head._ "Ah, you. You did this to me! DAMN BRAT, I'LL SUE!" _He yelled._

"What do you mean!? You fell on your own!" _I tried to argue._

_But it was too late. The police came up and asked what happened, clearly recognizing the man._ "Well you see officer, this child attacked me and my lovely companion here while we were going home." _He turned to the woman._ "Isn't that right, honey?"

_The lady looked down in, what I could only assume to be shame._ "Y-yes, this child pushed my companion and tried to get away with it." 

_Before I could even react to what she was saying, I was already cuffed and put into the car._

\------------------------------------------------------------

Ren looked down. "A few weeks later, it was decided I would be in juvie for six months causing me to fail all my classes and losing all my friends back home." He looked up to Makoto who had fire in her eyes. "But hey, at least Makoto believed that I wasn't a criminal."

Ryuji connects the dots. "Oh! Is that why Makoto is your tutor?" 

"Yes actually, part of the deal for me to move onto second year in another school was to have the student council president as my tutor." He smiled.

"That's not fair." Makoto muttered.

"What was that Mako-?"

"I SAID THAT'S NOT FAIR!" She slammed her fists onto the counter causing some of the customers to look at her weirdly. "It's bullshit! You saved that woman from being raped! And what does she do to help you? Testify against you!"

Ren wanted to add a little more fuel to this growing fire. "Worse part is that when I was first put in court, the guy didn't even show up because he was 'too hurt' to join. So they asked the lady to answer the same question the cops did and she said the same answer."

Makoto breathed in and out for a moment. "Ren, you wouldn't happen to know the name of the bastard who framed you, would you?" She asked with a murderous aura.

Ren felt intimidated. "N-no! I couldn't get a good look at his face and they never said his name."

Makoto continued to eat and calmed down a bit, before saying, "Once we find that person, I don't care where he lies in power. He could be president of the world, and I would still beat him to a bloody pulp. With no mercy whatsoever." She stated, continuing to eat.

Ryuji looked pale. "I-it's a good thing I'm not that person right now" 

Ren chuckled a bit. "Yeah, but I wouldn't harm him that much Makoto." The girl in question looked at him confused. "What? I want to do the same. Y'know, make sure he can't walk or move his arms. Also, he is the reason I'm even here." Makoto thought for a moment then nodded, and the two continued to eat.

Ryuji was even paler than before. "D-dude, I don't know who's more scary right now, you or your girlfriend." He lifted the tension.

"W-we aren't dating!" They said in unison, making Ryuji doubt even more.

\------------------------------------------------------------

They eventually parted ways and Ren went to Lablanc. Sojiro was reading the newspaper waiting for him. "Geez kid, what kept you? He asked with a hint of worry.

Ren looked down at his shoes as his phone rumbled. "I was out with some friends, sorry for not calling. Do you want me to get home before 9:00 next time?" He teased.

Sojiro was having none of that. "Don't go smart ass with me! But to answer your question, yes, I would like for you to come back before 9:00, latest is 11:30." He said before throwing something at Ren. 

He looked down at what he just caught. "Keys? Is this your way of telling me that I'm evicted?" He asked genuinely worriedly.

Sojiro merely looked at him with a bit of shock. "W-what!? No! It's that for personal reasons, I need to make it home by 10:40 pm, no later. I made an exception this time because you don't have the keys." He said, leaving to go home.

Ren changed and went to his room and opened his phone. He had gotten a text from Makoto.

<Beep-Boop> Thank you for helping me today by the way.

<Beep-Boop> Couldn't have imagined doing that on my own.

<Ren> No problem! Anytime!

<Beep-Boop> Anytime you need help from me, I'll gladly help.

<Ren> Alright, I'm going to sleep in a little bit. Good night Makoto :)

<Beep-Boop> Goodnight RenRen :)

Ren turned off his phone and went to sleep.

\------------------------------------------------------------

Makoto opened her eyes only to find herself once again in the velvet room. This time, however, she felt as if the room was bigger.

"It seems you have finally awakened." Igor spoke.

Makoto looked to her right and saw the cell had linked together with Ren's cell. "You better appreciate it, inmate! We worked hard to get your cells linked up like that!" Caroline shouted.

Ren had also appeared on that side of the room. "Hey Makoto! How's it going?" He waved.

Makoto waved back, but before she could speak, Igor began. "You two have done quite a lot over the past few days. You've unlocked your Personas and have formed multiple bonds."

Justine opened her notebook. "It says here that you have created bonds with one Ryuji Sakamoto. You have also formed bonds with each other and our master. However, our master and the inmate to the right share arcana. To cope with this, we will simply add an added multiplier when fusing for the arcana type." She explained.

Makoto raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean by fusing?"

Justine closed her book. "We will give you more information about them at a later point." 

Igor chuckled. "Yes, but keep this in mind before you go." The lights once again began to glow red and alarm bells rung. "The more confidants you form a contract with, the more power you will have." Then, once again the duo were kicked out of the velvet room

___________

[The Fool] Ren Amamiya/Igor - **Rank 2 / 1**

[Priestess] Makoto Nijima - **Rank 2**

[Chariot] Ryuji Sakamoto - **Rank 1**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading this far, next chapter is going to be a fun one.


	6. Leap of faith

4/13 

Ren entered Shujin in P.E. clothes and saw Kamoshida talking to Ann, who had a despaired look in her eyes.

"Whoa, no way!"

"I guess the rumors are true."

"Still, can't believe that they really are dating."

Ren heard the rumors but decided that they were wrong. ' _Why would a student date a teacher? Especially when Ann clearly hates Kamoshida.'_

"I hope you'll be watching Takamaki-san." He said with a creepy grin.

"Yeah, I can't wait to see you beat the students." She said sarcastically.

Ren wasn't going to wait for another second. "Takamaki! There you are, I've been looking for you everywhere." He ran up to them.

Ann clearly didn't understand his intentions. "What do you mean?"

"Well I was meaning to ask you about the notes we wrote yesterday, I didn't write an important part." He said, giving her a way out.

Ann stared at him for a moment and finally understood what he meant. "OH! Yeah, sorry I was distracted for a second there. Let's go to the library and I'll let you copy my notes." She began walking to the library and whispered to him. "Thank you."

Ren followed her, leaving Kamoshida with a pissed-off expression.

\------------------------------------------------------------

Makoto sneakily followed Shiho down the hall, pretending to check bulletin boards as she went. Eventually, Shiho went around a corner. Makoto followed her, only to be stared at by Shiho. "Ms. Prez, why are you following me?"

Makoto took a step back. "W-whatever could you mean? I was simply looking for Amamiya-kun." She lied.

Shiho squinted at Makoto. "You think that he's going to be where I'm going? Why would you think that?" Shiho's eyes opened wide. 

' _Oh no.'_ Makoto thought.

"I know why you're following me, you think that I'm dating him aren't you?" Shiho smiled smugly.

Makoto shook her head. "No! I was just looking for him, nothing like that. I was just-."

"Then stop following me!" She yelled, running down the hall and going up the stairs.

She sighed. ' _That could have gone a whole lot better_.' She began to walk to her class.

\------------------------------------------------------------

Ren waited to "see how long they can last against Kamoshida in a volleyball match." Fortunately, Ryuji was there to keep him company. "Ugh, why do we have to be here? We all know this is just to raise Kamoshida's ego." He whispered.

Ren nodded. "They really didn't have to make it mandatory. Seriously, why are we going one at a time? He's a teacher." He took out his phone and started to text Makoto to pass the time.

<Ren> This is soooo boringggg.

<Beep-Boop> Don't blame me, I voted against it. This is clearly just to raise his already galaxy-sized ego.

<Ren> Can't wait to go in, lose and go out. Simple and clean.

<Beep-Boop> My condolences. 

Eventually, it was time for Ren to go. "Good luck dude!" Ryuji cheered.

Ren looked at him with a sleepy face. "Don't need it. I just won't play." To this Ryuji started to laugh.

"All right Amamiya-kun, let's get started." Kamoshida taunted.

"It's Amamiy-." The volleyball hit Ren perfectly, so that it would knock his glasses off but still hurt.

The crowd cheered louder than before.

"Yeah Kamoshida! Beat him!"

"Make the criminal wish he never came to Shujin!"

Ren now hurt both physically and mentally, picked up his glasses, and left court. But Kamoshida merely called the next person.

\------------------------------------------------------------

Ren stepped outside of the court, eventually leading to a rest area. He sat down on a bench, to close his eyes for a moment hearing the gentle sounds of leave and the wind really helped him relax.

He opened his eyes to see that Makoto was standing in front of him. He patted the space next to him. "Want to sit?"

Makoto chuckled. "Yeah." She sat down next to him. "So, how are you feeling? I can already guess what mental toll this whole experience has been."

Ren looked down at his shoes. "Could I be real with you for a second Makoto?"

Makoto simply smiled. "If you're worried about annoying me with your troubles, don't. I'll be here with you Ren, until the end. Nothing will come between our friendship." She reassured, taking out a box of napkins from her bag.

Ren smiled, then tears began to roll down his face. "Thank you for being my friend Makoto. Since I got here, even before I entered Shujin, I've been called horrible things." 

Makoto patted him on the back and wiped a few tears off with tissues. "I can imagine so, I'm sorry I didn't realize sooner. If I had, I would have probably found a way to stop it."

Ren got another tissue and wiped a few tears. "No, it's ok. There was no way for you to have known. Makoto, am I scum? Why are you still around me?"

Makoto gasped. "No Ren. You aren't scum, if anything you're better than everyone in this school combined! How could I not be your best friend?" 

They waited for Ren to calm down, Makoto comforting him. Eventually, Ren stopped sobbing. "Thank you, Makoto."

Makoto simply smiled. "Ren, there's no need to thank me. I just wanted to help you. Like all those times you helped me through tough times."

Ren gave Makoto a friendly hug. "Thanks for cheering me up Makoto." He smiled. Then their phones vibrated.

<Ryuji> Where'd you guys go?

<Ren> Rest area

<Makoto> Ren needed some cheering up.

<Ryuji> Ah, yeah I would also be effed up after that happened, on top of everything else you're dealing with.

<Ryuji> I know that things have been really scuffed, with all the rumors and general hate, but look on the bright side.

<Ryuji> U got 2 friends that'll be ready to support you when you're down!

<Ren> Thank you Ryuji.

<Ryuji> Don't mention it!

<Ryuji> I'm heading to where you guys are at.

\------------------------------------------------------------

Ren, Ryuji, and Makoto were in the rest area thinking of things they needed to do. "Well, we could go to each volleyball player and ask what the deal with Kamoshida is." Ryuji suggested.

"Ah yes, a delinquent, a 'criminal', and the student council president going around asking about Kamoshida. Not suspicious at all." Ren said sarcastically.

Makoto nodded. "We need to find a way to get the information without asking directly."

Ryuji shot another idea at them. "Well, why don't we ask the club members about their scars? They'll probably be too scared to answer, which will give us more leverage on Kamoshida."

Makoto and Ren agreed that was a good decision. "I'll deal with the students in the main building. Ryuji you could deal with members in the practice building." He turned toward Makoto, waiting to hear what she was going to do.

"I try to hear any rumors that revolve around Kamoshida in the library." Makoto suggested.

Once again the three agreed and they went their separate ways.

\------------------------------------------------------------

Ren went around the building asking about their injuries and having the members being too afraid to answer. So he made it back to the resting area.

<Ren> Yep, everyone I asked was hurt by Kamoshida.

<Ryuji> Same here, although a few girls looked down in shame when I asked the guys.

<Makoto> As I was going to the library, I heard a few members talk about terrible training.

<Makoto> But nothing in the library itself, I did however find books based on our Personas.

<Ren> Neat, gonna have to borrow one later.

<Ren> Anyways, we should meet back at the rest area.

<Ryuji> Got it, on my way.

<Makoto> I'll start heading there after I pack my things.

Ren waited a little bit for Ryuji who appeared sooner than he expected. "Yo! Like I typed, nothing interesting except for one person."

Ren tilted his head. "Who is this person?"

"Mishima Yuki. I think he's in your class actually." Ryuji recalled.

"I've found you!" A familiar voice called.

"You say something?" Ryuji asked, confused.

"No, no I did no-"

Suddenly a cat jumped onto Ren's shoulder. "I asked!"

"M-Morgan!?" Ryuji took a step back.

" _Morgana!_ My name is Morgana! Not Morgan, anyways, yes I am here."

"O-ok, I must be dreaming, cuss I can hear that cat talk. You can hear it too right?" Ryuji pointed at Morgana.

"Meow?" Ren asked.

"This is no time to be joking around!" Ryuji exclaimed.

Behind them, they heard a group of teachers complaining about a cat. "So I guess only you guys can hear me." The cat celebrated.

"Only we can hear who?" Makoto asked as she arrived. She turned toward the cat. "Aww, Ren! You have a cat on your shoulder!" Makoto squealed.

Morgana backed away from Makoto's hand. "Hey! Don't do that! Last time you pet me, I was put under a spell!"

Makoto was caught off guard. "I-it can talk? Wait so… Morgana?" The non-cat nodded. "So in the real world, you turn into a normal cat. Neat."

"I… You… yes." Morgana said disappointedly. "Anyways, I came here to tell you about what you could do to help me."

"Yes, we could, with you giving us information about the palace. For one, how are we going to stop Kamoshida with it?" Makoto asked.

Morgana jumped down to the table in front of where Ren was sitting. "Ok, so first we need to secure a route to the treasure. That's where the ruler's distortion is concentrated and formed into whatever started their distortion."

Makoto took a second to take everything in. "So once we get into the treasure room we steal it, what happens after that?"

Morgana's eyes darted from left to right. "Well, usually they have a change of perspective and condemn themselves."

Ryuji eyed him suspiciously. "What do you mean by sometimes?"

"Well, sometimes…"

"What are you three doing here?" Ann asked, interrupting Morgana.

Ren quickly stuffed Morgana into his bag. "Uh, nothing Takamaki-san."

She turned to Makoto and back to Ren. "So the rumors are true. You're using Amamiya to get extra credit." She scowled at Makoto. "All you think about is your own reputation. You don't really care Amamiya do you?" Before anyone could respond, she got a message, checked her phone, and quickly left.

Ren watched as she left. "Maybe we should leave too."

Ryuji and Makoto nodded. "See you guys later. I gotta help my mom." Ryuji walked away.

Makoto looked at Ren with a hurt expression. "Ren, I'm not using you for my personal gain. I just want to-."

Ren held up his hand. "You don't need to reassure me. I know that you genuinely care for me." He picked up his bag and began to leave.

\------------------------------------------------------------

Ren made it to the Shibuya station square, when he heard Ann talking over the phone.

"What do you mean? Oh. I actually can't make it, I have my job to worry about." Her eyes opened. "Wh-what!? No, please don't do anything like that… Hello? HELLO!?" Ann Put her phone down and looked down at her shoes. She had lost all hope.

Ann looked toward her train station, only to see Ren staring at her. "H-hey Takamaki-san. I couldn't help but notice that phone call you were having." He said awkwardly.

Ann scowled at him. "Y'know it's not polite to listen to someone's private conversations."

"Yeah, I'm sorry, it's just that you were really loud. Do you want to talk about it? I'm willing to lend an ear." He offered.

Ann looked at him for a moment. "You know what? Yes, c'mon let's head to the Big Bang Burger, it'll be more private." She led him toward it.

\------------------------------------------------------------

They ordered a small drink. "So, how much did you hear?" She asked, taking a sip of her drink.

"Everything from 'What do you mean' to when you stopped the call." Ren responded.

"... That's almost the whole conversation." Ren apologized. "It's fine, just surprising. Anyways, let me start from the beginning then. So yes, that was Kamoshida. Despite what people think we-."

"Aren't dating?" Ren guessed.

"You're right, but people constantly think we are, and it's annoying. Anyways, for a while now he's kept on asking for my phone number, and every single time I've managed to avoid giving it to him. But he recently got it without me telling him. I'm worried that if I don't do what he asks me to do, he might remove Shiho from the volleyball team." 

"Then why don't you convince her to move?" He suggested. "I mean if she moves, you won't have any reason to follow his instructions and he doesn't have any way of blackmailing you."

Ann looked at him for a second. "You have a point, I'll try to convince her next time we see each other. Are you really sure you're the mass-murdering criminal everyone makes you out to be?" Ann joked.

"I don't know what you're talking about Takamaki-san, I'm bad to the bone." He chuckled, taking a sip of a drink.

Ann chuckled as well. "Talking to you was a surprisingly relaxing experience." Anm smiled. "Wanna order an actual meal? I realized I haven't eaten anything yet."

"Sure, why not." His phone rumbled. "Give me a minute."

<Beep-Boop> Where are you right now?

\------------------------------------------------------------

Makoto spied on Mishima, clearly something was going on with him since he had the most bruises out of anyone she's seen. 

Mishima went up to Shiho. "S-Suzuie-san. Kamoshida wants to speak to you." Mishima bowed apologetically. "I'm sorry, please don't be mad at me!"

Shiho merely grinned. "Mishima, don't be sorry, I'm not mad. Besides, don't worry, we'll get through this one way or another." She said walking toward the practice building.

Makoto went up to Mishima. "Mishima-kun, why does Kamoshida need Shiho?"

Mishima started shaking. "M-m-m Ms. Prez! He called her for important training." He lied.

Makoto punched the wall, cracking it a bit. "Tell me the truth Mishima!" She yelled to give her threat more menacing.

"Kamoshida called her to beat her!" He said scarred for his life.

Makoto started running toward Shiho ' _Shit, Shit, Shit!'_ She entered the practice building and saw Kamoshida grab Shiho by the wrist.

"P-please no! It's not my fault, I gave you everything you needed!" Shiho struggled to get away, but was unable to.

Kamoshida was fuming. "Well clearly that wasn't enough, it's time for your _special training_." He said pervertedly.

Makoto ran up to him and elbowed him in the stomach. Kamoshida let go of Shiho and bent down to hold his stomach. 

Shiho looked in shock. "Ms. Prez, what?"

Makoto grabbed Shiho by the wrist, careful not to hurt her, and ran to the station. She stopped once they entered the train. "Ok, you'll be safe for now. Let me message Ren to see where he is so we can group up with him."

<Beep-Boop> Ren, where are you right now?

<Ren> Big Bang Burger in Shibuya.

<Ren> Saw Ann crying, wanted to talk to her, and now we're eating at BBB.

<Beep-Boop> Shiho and I are heading to where you are.

<Ren> Alright, I'll stand outside to look for you two.

Makoto put down her phone. "Why did you do that?" Shiho asked, still trembling a bit from the events that had passed.

Makoto looked at her with an eyebrow raised. "You were in danger? I don't think I need any more reason than that." She chuckled.

Shiho spent the entire ride trying to fully process what happened.

\------------------------------------------------------------

Ren got up and walked toward the door. "Ann, I'm gonna wait for a friend to come by, please don't let anyone sit in my seat." Ann noded.

Ren waited outside until he saw a familiar brown bob cut. He walked up to them. "Makoto, Suzui-san. It's nice to see that you're both ok." He greeted with a smile.

"It's good to see you too Ren. Although I think your criminal side is rubbing off on me. I kneed Kamoshida in the stomach." Makoto laughed.

Shiho watched as they laughed. "Wait, you too know each other well enough to be friends?"

Ren and Makoto stared at her for a moment. "Well we've been found out. Yep, Makoto and I have been best friends since we were kids."

"The reason why I was following you in the morning, was because Ren told me that you were hurt. So I wanted to see your activities." Makoto explained.

Ren stared at her. "You were found out?" Makoto looked away with a blush. "Why? Were you using the old book trick?"

Makoto looked back at him as red as a tomato. "I-I haven't done that since you left Tokyo!"

"Um, not to stop this adorable friendship you guys have, Amamiya-kun, why are you here? Were you waiting for Niijima-senpai to rescue me?" Shiho asked.

Ren pointed to the Big Bang Burger. "Actually I was with Takamaki-san, actually we should all go there." He started walking toward the Big Bang Burger

Ren held the door open for Shiho to walk in. "Oh, before we go Suzui-san, please be careful walking home, not going to school for the next few days."

Ren was closing the door when Shiho stopped him. "A-actually." Ren stared at her expectantly. "I wanted to give you my number. So that we could stay in touch and hang out, y'know?" Shibo suggested.

Ren agreed, got her phone number, and left with Makoto. Who walked up to Ren. "So, what do we do now?" 

"Well I was thinking, why don't we steal Kamoshida's… what did Morgana call it again?" Suddenly Ren's bag started to rustle.

Ren brought his bag out in front of him and unzipped it. Out popped Morgana. "Kamoshida's treasure. Once we take that, he'll be changed!" Morgana restated.

Ren quickly put him back in his bag. "Morgana? I thought you left my bag!"

"It's kind of hard to leave when you leave when you zipped it up!" Morgana cried.

Makoto sighed. "We should go back to Lablanc, it'll be more private." Makoto led them to the station.

\------------------------------------------------------------

Once they made it to Ren's room, they sat on his bed.

"So Morgana, you never finished telling us about the palace. What happens when we steal the treasure?" Ren asked the cat.

Morgana leaped from Ren's bag and landed on the floor. "Well, usually when you steal a treasure, their hearts are altered. This can have varied effects depending on the person."

They nodded. "You've told us this before, Ann interrupted you. What are some of the effects, and what are the risks we take whenever we steal their treasure?" Makoto asked.

"Well, I haven't seen everything, but a common effect is being miserable with what you've done. Eventually, this causes the host to confess their misdeeds." He explained.

"So basically, a treasure is the heart of their distortion? Then what about the people inside of the palace?" Ren asked.

"Most of those are shadows. The ones that attack us are guards. Ones like Lady Ann and the volleyball team are how the ruler sees that person." 

"Wait, so there's a shadow version of Makoto and I in there?" Ren summed up.

Morgana nodded. "Although it would be how Kamoshida sees you. Like you would probably be a criminal in chains or something. However, Kamoshida in the palace acts as a vessel." Morgana warned. "If you kill the Shadow Kamoshida, Kamoshida himself will die."

The room went dead silent. When they heard footsteps going up into the attic. "Oh, so that's who keeps meowing." Sojiro sighed. "Kid, where did you get that cat?"

"We found it abandoned on the sidewalk." Ren lied.

"Ren and I took it upon ourselves to take care of the little guy until he can go back to his home." Makoto continued.

Sojiro scratched the back of his neck. "Geez, you two are acting like little kids. Besides, Niijima, don't you have a sister? Why don't you ask her if you could keep it?"

Makoto thought for a good lie, but Ren was already prepared. "S-she has an allergy!" He blurted out.

"Yes!" Makoto cleared her throat. "Yes, she can't be living with one for the life of her. Once Ren and I found a cute dog and brought it home. She kept sneezing and eventually locked herself in her room." She giggled at the false memory.

Sojiro saw through their lies. "If she's allergic to cats, why was she sneezing at the presence of a dog?" 

Ren stared at Makoto, seemingly saying ' _How did you mess up!?'_ She stared back, almost as if she's saying ' _I'm sorry! It was a simple slip of the mouth.'_

Sojiro sighed once more. "Whatever, you can keep him here. Just take him to school and whenever you leave. I will not run a cat café, nor will my customers appreciate having a cat meow their ears off." Sojiro went downstairs.

Ren sighed at the sound of Morgana's chuckle. "You two are pretty good at making up lies on the spot. Though you need to be better at following your own stories."

"Right, I think I'm going home. It's been a long day, and I still need to do homework." Makoto said, waving goodbye to them too. 

Sojiro came up soon after with a bowl of milk. "I was going to go home, but I couldn't get the cat's meowing out of my head. By the way, did you happen to name him?" Sojiro asked with excitement.

Ren stared at Morgana for a second. "Yeah, I think I'll name him, Morgana." Morgana walked up to Ren, rubbing his head on him.

Sojiro looked at them with a bit of disappointment. "Oh, you've already named him. I was hoping to-. Nevermind. Anyways, remember to take care of him, cause I won't. Oh and if the cat needs any more milk, you can grab some and warm it up for him." Sojiro said before leaving Lablanc.

Before Ren went to bed he got a couple of texts. He opened the one from an unmarked number.

<???> Hello? I hope that I wasn't given the wrong number.

<Ren> Hey! Do you happen to be a girl that was saved by my best friend?

<???> Yes! It's nice speaking to you Amamiya-kun!

Ren smiled and set the name as Suzuie.

<Ren> It's nice to see you too. Although, you can just call me Ren. It's easier, trust me.

<Suzie> oh, then in that case. You can call me Shiho.

He changed the name.

<Ren> Ok then. 

<Ren> How are you feeling by the way?

<Shiho> Feeling great actually. Thank Niijima-sempai for saving me for me, please.

<Ren> Of course!

<Shiho> Anyways, I'm signing off for the night.

<Shiho> Gn!

<Ren> Goodnight!

Ren opened the message from Makoto.

<Makoto> Hello, I've messaged you to tell you, thank you.

<Ren> Why are you thanking me? If anything, I should be thanking you, for helping me get better when I was feeling like trash.

<Makoto> Your welcome Ren.

<Makoto> No, I'm saying thank you, for helping with this case.

<Makoto> Without you, I wouldn't even know about Kamoshida's dirty deeds.

<Ren> I think you would've done something right though.

<Ren> And your welcome for that. Remember, you only need to ask and I will help.

<Makoto> …

<Makoto> Thank you. Actually, I do need some help with something, but I'll tell you later.

<Makoto> In any case. I hope you have a nice sleep.

<Ren> Goodnight Makoto! See you tomorrow!

Ren smiled and opened the last message which was from an unknown person.

<???> Hello? Is this working?

<Ren> Who might you be?

(!) Message failed to send.

Ren's eyebrow went up. ' _Wha? Did they block me already? We haven't even interacted yet.'_

Ren sighed and decided to sleep.

\------------------------------------------------------------

4/14 

Ren was riding the subway alongside Makoto, who was sitting on a seat reading a book. Until, she noticed Ren's head bobbing up and down. "Ren, you seem drowsy. How much did you sleep?" She asked worriedly.

Ren yawned. "Not much. I was trying to, but every couple of, I don't know, hours, I kept waking up. Morgana plopped himself on my chest. It was really uncomfortable." He yawed again. 

Ren briefly closed his eyes, and eventually went flying forward. He was about to hit his head on the train's wall, until Makoto caught him. The sudden shock of Makoto's hands scarred him awake. "Yeah, no." Makoto got up from her seat and sat Ren on it. "You are going to sit here until we get to Shujin. Don't be afraid to sleep. If you do, lean forward, I'll catch you."

Ren looked concerned. "Are you sure I won't be causing any problem?"

Makoto nodded with a loving smile. "Of course it won't be a problem."

For the rest of the ride, Ren fell asleep, Makoto making sure his head wouldn't annoy any of the passengers or wake him up prematurely.

\------------------------------------------------------------

They found Shiho at the entrance to Shujin. "Shiho? What are you standing here for?" Ren asked.

Shiho looked up at the school with almost dead eyes. "Doesn't it feel like… something doesn't want me in Shujin? Almost as if a voice is telling you 'Don't go in there!'?"

Makoto was starting to get closer to Ren. "D-don't say stuff like that! I'm sure that it's nothing. Besides, even if something bad does happen, which it won't, Ren, Ryuji, Ann, and I are all here to back you up!" Makoto said, pumping her fist.

Shiho looked back at them. "You're right! I can't let anything scare me! I don't know what I could be afraid of. I mean I have you Niijima-sempai and… where's Ren-kun?"

Makoto pointed at him. Shiho turned around, seeing Ren in front of a bulletin board. Shiho and Makoto ran up to him. The board had a picture of Kamoshida with the words 'Stinky head' written on it. Along with 'By Ren Amamiya'.

Makoto was fuming. "Who the hell did this." Makoto asked with a murderous aura around her.

"I-it was the criminal student, N-Niijima-sempai." 

Makoto turned to the student who said that with ferocious eyes. Until she realized it was Mishima. ' _I can't stay mad at him. He's being controlled by Kamoshida after all._ '

Kamoshida walked up to the board. "So, you did this, you dam criminal?" He turned to Ren with an evil smirk. "You know what? That's fine. I'll report this at our next board meeting. You not only blackmailed Niijima to kick me, but you also put this on the bulletin board."

"Woah!"

"I knew he was blackmailing her!"

"Maybe we should try to save her!"

The students started to get riled up. Ren and Makoto merely started walking up the stairs into their next class. Shiho stared at them as they walked up the stairs, eyes completely covered by their hair. Shiho quickly walked after them as she heard Kamoshida laugh along with the rest of the students.

They made it to the student council room. Ren and Makoto sat on the seats next to each other as calm as they could be. Shiho however was livid. "Ren-kun, Niijima-sempai, why did you just walk away!? You too looked like you lost and walked a path of shame!"

Ren stared at her, with a dead-serious expression. "Shiho, do you know why I'm here at Shujin?"

She shook her head. "The most I know are rumors, but those are the most unreliable sources known to man." She joked.

Neither Ren nor Makoto laughed. "Long story short, I'm under probation because I tried to do something good. Kamoshida clearly wanted me to attack him in front of the crowd. Because he knows that if I make trouble, I will instantly be put in jail."

Shiho gasped. "Jail!? But you're a minor! Shouldn't you be sent to-."

"Juvie? No, he was tried as an adult. So he's not even going to get a chance. Instant lock up for life." Makoto answered.

Shiho put the pieces together. "But wait, Kamoshida's going to report the picture thing. Which means that you'll be put in jail by the end of the month."

Ren nodded. "Yep, so I figured. Might as well spend my time wisely here. No point in fighting back, since I'm powerless."

Shiho looked down at her cast. "I-I see. I think I'm going to class now. See you around Ren." She waved at the two before closing the door and leaving.

They waited for 5 seconds to pass. Morgana popped out of Ren's bag and stared at Ren expecting to hear something. Makoto doing the same.

Ren sighed. "I guess we have no choice."

"Nope, it's either steals the treasure, or you go to jail. And I am not letting you go to jail, I barely got to see you again." Makoto said with slight tears in her eyes. 

Ren got up from his seat. "Right, I'll tell you and Ryuji our next move on the roof." Ren left the room, with Morgana zipped up in his bag.

Makoto began to tear up, until there was a knock on the door. "Come in." She said, wiping her tears away with the napkins in her bag.

Luckily it was Haru, who looked very worried. "Mako-chan! Did you hear the news!?" Haru saw Makoto wiping her tears off and rushed over.

"Haru, I was there!" Makoto cried. "I can't even think right! I-I just got him back! How can he already be leaving! I never go to tell him I-." Makoto stopped herself.

Haru patted her on the back. "It's ok, Mako-chan. I'm sure everything is going to be ok. Ren isn't going to jail Mako-chan. Everything will be ok, trust me." Haru confronted.

\------------------------------------------------------------

Ren was in his social studies class when Ryuji messaged him.

<Ryuji> Dude!!

<Ryuji> Are you good!?

<Ren> Yeah

<Ryuji> "Yeah"? That's it?

<Ren> Yep, no need to over react.

<Ryuji> You got a plan?

<Ren> I have a plan after all.

<Ren> We meet on the roof.

<Ryuji> Alright! See ya then.

"HEY! Amamiya! Are you even paying attention?" The teacher yelled. Before Ren could answer, a piece of chalk hit him on the head.

"Youch!"

"I'd hate being him right now."

"I kinda feel bad for him."

The other students seemed to sympathize with him. "Are you ok Ren?" Morgana asked.

Ren gave him a thumbs up, while the rest of the students and the teacher were confused by the cat noises.

\------------------------------------------------------------

Eventually school passed. Ren, Ryuji, and Makoto were on the roof. "So Ren, what's the plan?" Makoto asked.

Morgana leaped out of the bag and stood proudly on the table. "Obviously we're going into the palace today! We need to steal the treasure by the end of the month with no time wasted!"

Ren shook his head. "No, we need to be ready for this. The first time we went in, we weren't ready for anything. Second time was sort of the same deal, except for Ryuji giving us those models."

"So we need supplies right?" Makoto summed up and Ren confirmed. 

"We already know where we could buy a model. Although, the dude's intense! I swear, he was probably part of the mafia." Ryuji theorized.

Makoto looked at Ryuji with excitement. "I'll go!" Ryuji stared at her weirdly. "I mean, I'll go since Ren lives near a clinic. It'll be easier that way."

Ren chuckled. "Yeah, that sounds like a good plan."

"Alright, let's do this." Ryuji started to leave the roof.

Ren pulled Makoto in to whisper to her, "Have fun meeting your heroes." 

Makoto chuckled and whispered back. "Was really that obvious?" And ran after Ryuji.

Morgana leaped into Ren's bag. "Alright, this is gonna be an awesome day!"

\------------------------------------------------------------

Makoto and Ryuji walked into a back alley of Shibuya. The building had the words 'Untouchable' on it with neon letters. Makoto raised an eyebrow. "This is the place? It looks like a normal gun store."

Ryuji grinned from ear to ear. "I know right! That's part of the beauty, don't worry though, they only sell models." He reassured.

They walked in and saw a man wearing a gray hat with yellow ear defenders, reading a manga. In the back of her head, she saw a tattoo of some kind.

' _Oh my god, he's actually a yakuza member! This is one of the greatest days of my life!'_ She fangirled.

Ryuji walked up to the counter. "H-hey man. I would like to buy three guns."

The man looked at him. "Ok, what model do you want? What's the type, and what number?"

Ryuji looked at him completely confused. "Model, type? Why are you trying to sell us cars? I asked for three guns not cars." 

The man sighed. "Get out."

Ryuji's eyes opened wide. "Wha-."

"I said get out. You obviously don't know anything about guns." He said calmly.

Ryuji walked out of the shop. Makoto however stayed. "Excuse me."

The man looked up from his manga once more. "Aren't you going to leave too?" He chuckled.

Makoto shook her head. "Actually I was wondering if I could get models for a .44 magnum revolver, a colt 1911 pistol, and a browning A-bolt shotgun?" She asked, knowing those off the top of her head.

The man seemed impressed. "Didn't think you would know things like that. Give me a sec, gonna get the models out from the back." 

He stepped out of Makoto's field of vision. She then sighed. ' _I'm so glad I took the time to remember those. We would be going back empty-handed._ ' 

The man came back with a little bag she assumed they were rapped in. "Alright, these are all of them. The shotgun model can be taken apart and put back together with the little booklet I gave you. And of course, these are just B-B guns. They aren't meant for killing. I know that seems obvious, but you wouldn't believe how many people come back disappointed they aren't able to kill someone." He chuckled.

"Ah, I see. Thank you very much." She gave her the amount of money needed then left the store.

Ryuji was outside waiting for her. "Geeze, what took ya so long? We gotta give Ren and Morna the-."

"Good news." Makoto stopped him. She smirked as she held up the bag. "I think we'll meet up back at Lablanc. It's more convenient." She said before beginning to walk over to the station.

\------------------------------------------------------------

Ren and Morgana made it to the clinic. Inside was the pharmacist he met before. "Alright Ren, you need to stay calm. You got this!" Morgana encouraged.

Ren walked up to the front desk. "Hi, doctor Takemi. I would like to get an exam."

The doctors looked up from her desk. "Oh, you're that boy from the other day. Sorry for being rude to you then, I was having a cruddy day. Anyways, ok, I'll be with you in a second." She said, standing making her way to the door. 

"Alright, we've rehearsed several times on the way here. You know what to say in case she asks anything else. You can do this!" Morgana said from the bag.

Ren went in and got a normal check from the doctor. "You seem fine enough. So why did you come in?" She asked.

"Well, I've been feeling a bit strange. Sometimes at a random time, my head starts to hurt like crazy." He lied.

Doctor Takemi thought for a moment. "So you want me to get you medicine for that? Wow, I've heard better excuses than that. But I do have to admit, this is probably the worst I've heard." 

"S-she completely saw through our ruse." Morgana said astonishedly.

"How about this, I help you with medical stuff in the future, and you could give me medicine?" Ren bargained.

She opened a cabinet and rounded up a few. "That sounds fair. Alright, anytime I need assistance, I'll call you. Here's my number so I can contact you." She gave him a piece of paper.

Ren registered her number onto his phone. "Alright, I'm glad we could come to an agreement. I'm probably not going to be available for a few days, but I'll contact you when I am." 

Ren left the room and began to collect his stuff. He saw three older men in suits walk in. "Dr. Takemi! We know you're in there!"

"We should leave before things get ugly. They look angry as is." Morgana whispered.

They left the clinic, and Ren opened his phone to text Ryuji and Makoto. 

<Beep-Boop> RenRen! We met a Yakuza member!

She beat him to it.

<Ren> Did something bad happen?

<Beep-Boop> No, it was an airsoft shop.

<Beep-Boop> The airsoft shop is where I bought our new model guns.

<Ren> Oh, that makes more sense.

<Ren> Anyways, Morgana and I are all set.

<Ren> Want to meet up at Lablanc to talk about our next move?

<Beep-Boop> Sure, Ryuji and I are on our way.

<Ren> Right, I'll be waiting.

\------------------------------------------------------------

They all met in Lablanc's attic. "So, what's the plan now?" Ryuji asked.

Morgana sat on the work desk. "So, now that we're working with a deadline, that means we'll have to speed up our operations. I say we take on the palace in one fell swoop!" Morgana yelled.

"Hell yeah! I don't wanna waste any time, we gotta get Ren out of this mess as fast as we can!" Ryuji shouted as well. 

"Ryuji quiet down. It might be night, but boss is still expecting customers." Makoto silenced him.

Ren sighed. "Besides, that sounds like a terrible plan. We've seen the castle from the outside, and the thing is massive."

Makoto nodded. "And that's just the height, we don't know how big the individual hallways and rooms are. Plus, there might be hidden rooms, traps, and more shadows. Even with the medicine, Ren got us and the extra firearms we have, we can still get exhausted, especially when we also have Personas that take away more stamina."

"Keep in mind, Makoto and I are pulling more weight since we can use multiple Personas at once." Ren added.

Ryuji and Morgana apologized for getting rowdy. "Right, then we'll take it in days. Since, again we don't know how big the place is, we need to pick out days to go through. We can do that later though." Morgana suggested. 

"So, what day are you getting expelled Ren?" Ryuji asked.

Ren thought for a moment. "I think Kamoshida said he was going to mention it in the next board meeting."

"So May second." Makoto stated.

"Alright, we have plenty of time. Why don't we go tomorrow, to see if we can find a map or something?" Ryuji suggested.

They all agreed. "Alright, so we have until the second of May to steal his treasure and we're going tomorrow to do some scouting." Morgana summed up.

"Yep." Ryuji yawned. "Anyways, we should probably end it here. I'm getting tired." Ryuji began to leave.

"I'll be leaving too, I had a great time Ren. See you tomorrow." Makoto smiled following Ryuji.

"Have a good night guys!" Ren waved.

Once they left, Ren changed into his pajamas. "We should really be sleeping as well Morgana." Ren said, going to his bed. 

Morgana nodded and jumped off the table. "Although, you should really clean this place up."

"Yeah I should, but not right now. I'm tired." Ren closed his eyes and slept. No visits to the velvet room tonight.

___________

[The Fool] Ren Amamiya/Igor - Rank 3 / 1

[Priestess] Makoto Nijima - Rank 3

[Chariot] Ryuji Sakamoto - Rank 1

[Death] Tae Takemi - Rank 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading. I relise that you all might have a few questions as to why I did some things. So here are a few that I will answer, if you have anymore relating to the story, please ask them.
> 
> Q. Why are the event dates different.
> 
> A. While I was playing Persona 5, I found it odd that the volleyball team and Ann telling you about her situation odd. So I put them as one date and the next day was the anouncment of Ren being expelled. Also because I forgot the dates of the events.
> 
> Q. In an earlier chapter, Sojiro talked about a girl who died days prior to Ren arriving at Tokyo. This implies we're in the Royal timeline, but we don't see Kasumi appear. Why is that?
> 
> A. So I originaly wanted Kasumi to act as a romantic rival to Makoto. But then I relized that some of my favorite scenes aren't in that game. So I decided to change it to the original Persona 5 timeline. I've also changed what Sojiro says during that part as well so that newer readers wouldn't be confused by it.
> 
> Q. Why did you make the chapter longer by adding two days in one chapter?
> 
> A. Cause I haven't written two days in one chapter in a while.
> 
> Q. How can we tell the differance between a private chat and a group chat?
> 
> A. If a character has a nickname, it's a private chat, if not, it's a group chat. The only exception is when there's a line that says it, for example: "[User Ren changed User Makoto's name to Beep-Boop].
> 
> Q. Why are the nicknames incosistant? For example, Makoto has a nickname and sometimes Ren has it.
> 
> A. To help you tell who's perspective it is. When we're looking at it through Ren's eye, we see [Beep-Boop], when we're looking at it through Makoto's eye, it's [RenRen].
> 
> Sorry if these aren't questions you have, I couldn't think of anymore. If you have a question not on here related to the story, please do not hesitate to ask.


	7. Operation: Wall's Eye

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the semi-late upload this week,I was busy with rl stuff. I've also played a bit of Scramble and I can say for certain that I love the game. Anyways, I hope you enjoy this chapter of Cheater's Hand!

4/15 - 18 days until Ren gets expelled.

School ended rather quickly for the three. One question after another and a few annoyances along the way. "Morgana! Quiet down next time." Ren said with a slight scolding voice.

"I'm sorry, it's just so boring. What else am I supposed to do? Sleep!" Morgana asked sarcastically.

"Yes!" Ren exclaimed.

Makoto walked up to Ren. "So, we're really going again huh Ren?" 

Ren nodded. "Yep, can't wait. Although, we should tell Ryuji we're meeting outside today." 

Makoto nodded and started to contact him. "Ren, I was thinking, once we run out of energy to keep going, what are we going to do?"

Morgana popped out of Ren's bag. "That's simple, we just find a safe room."

Ryuji walked up to them. "A safe room? What are we gonna do once we get there? Pray that the shadows run past us?"

"Well that's the beauty of them, we can teleport between the rooms and even the entrance!" When he finished explaining, they entered the palace.

"Woah!" Ryuji cried. "That's cool!"

"I know right! The only problem is that we actually have to find it." Morgana sighed.

Makoto smirked. "We better get started then."

\------------------------------------------------------------

They headed inside through the vent once more. They were going to run through the grand hall, but Kamoshida's men were all gathered there for what they could only assume to be a meeting. " **And that's what we need to do to find those brats and their cat! Are there any questions? Good."** The shadows spread out. One went into the room in front of the vent's room.

The four followed suit. " **Why are we even doing this? I seriously dought there'd be any point in coming back to the castle."** The shadow asked itself.

Makoto rushed up to it and jumped onto his shoulders, and ripped his mask off. "Show me your true form!" She shouted.

The shadow turned into a jack-o-lantern. Ren came running up behind her, jumped over her, and landed on its head. "Now then, tell us what are you guys doing?" Ren said, holding his gun to its head.

" **I-I-I swear! I don't know anything! All they told us was were to stand guard-Ho!"** It pleaded.

Ren sighed. "Well there goes that plan. I don't suppose you have a map of the castle, would you?"

**"N-No! We memorized the palace as soon as we're created-Ho." He squirmed.**

"Well that's a shame. Well then Mr. Jack, you have two options, either join us in our cause, or we tell an officer that you gave valuable information to the enemies." Makoto said.

**"I choose to be on your side…ho?"** The shadow calmed down and started to glow. " **_I remember now! I'm not supposed to be working for Kamoshida! I'm supposed to be on your side-Ho! My name is Pyro Jack. Call on me whenever you need to burn your enemies-Ho!_ ** " And with that, the Pyro Jack turned into a mask resembling Makoto's and went straight to her.

**

They sped through each room stopping only for any chests or shadows. They made it to an odd cell-like area. Instead of holding criminals, there was one large cell in the middle. It simply held a table and chair. "That's weird, why would they want a table locked up?" Ryuji asked.

Morgana inspected the table for a bit. "It looks like there might be something on the table, but I can't quite make it out. But if it's locked up, it must be good!" Morgana exclaimed.

Ren went up to the cell. "Maybe our Persona's can fit." Ren summoned Pixie and attempted to get the map. "This is much easier than I thought it was going to be."

Just as Pixie reached the other side of the bars, she was shocked and pushed back. Ren felt the shock as well. "Woah, dude are you ok? Isn't Pixie weak to electric damage?" Ryuji asked concerningly.

"Y-yeah. Perfectly fine." He said with a smirk. Clearly, he was in pain.

Makoto patted his back. "You don't have to play tough Ren." She whispered. 

Morgana searched around the room, looking for a secret button. Then he noticed a ring sort of thing hanging from a demonic-looking bust on the wall. He pulled it and the eyes glowed red. "Guys, I think this bust is a lever." He called.

Everyone turned toward the cell, expecting it to open. But nothing happened. "Maybe there are more to pull?" Ryuji theorized.

Ren used his third eye. He spotted a few more on statues that looked similar. He looked at the ground and noticed some footprints leading to the levers and around the cage. Ren went around, pulling the levers in the order the footsteps led to. Once he pulled all the levers, the cells were pulled up.

Morgana sighed. "Wow, that 3rd eye thing is really helpful." He ran toward the desk and hopped on it. 

Ryuji came up behind him. "It's a map! Hell yeah! That was way easier than I thought it was going to be!" He celebrated.

Morgana inspected the map for a bit. "Wait, this map only had the first and second floors." He sighed. "Ryuji you bone head. You jinxed us!"

"What do you mean!? You were the one who jumped up onto the table all high and mighty!" 

As they continued to argue, Ren and Makoto looked at the map further. "That's a little weird. This part of the map just stops." He pointed at it.

Makoto put her hand on her chin. "Maybe they're trying to hide something there. Maybe a safe room or a treasure trove." She was getting quite tired.

Morgana turned to the two. "Ooh, it might have a will seed!" 

The trio turned toward him. "What's a will seed?" The three asked in unison.

Morgana simply sighed. "You really are amateurs. A will seed is a type of treasure that every palace has. There are three in each palace, though the way you get them is different."

Ren thought for a moment. "So what happens if we collect all three?"

Morgana shook his head. "That I don't know. The first will seed is always the easiest. You look for it and collect it. The other two are kind of, tough to collect."

"So it's safe to assume it'll be a struggle to get them right?" Makoto assumed.

Morgana nodded. "We should look out for them though. I don't know why, but something in my fur is telling me that collect them is crucial." 

Ryuji scratched his head. "What happened to not being a cat?" He teased.

"Of course I'm not a cat! I used fur cause this is obviously not hair numbskull!" Morgana and Ryuji continued to argue.

Makoto walked up to them and chopped their heads. "Please stop fighting, we don't want our already small team to turn out worse." She led them to the next room.

Ren chuckled. ' _ These guys are fun to hang out with. _ ' He then followed her.

**

The team made it through more obstacles including traps, puzzles, and more shadows. They went up to a group of chandeliers and hoped between them. Ren made sure everyone was ok when they reached the other side. He made a mental note to pick up Morgana and carry him whenever they did something like this again.

Once Morgana reached the other side, his whiskers perked up. "I can feel it! A will seed is near us!" He started to look for any secret rooms.

Makoto took out the map. "Yes, the spot Ren pointed out is on here as well." Makoto put away the map and searched around the area for any clues on where it may be.

Ren hopped onto the nearby window, and opened it. "Well, here's a good way to check." He leaped out of it, finding himself at the courtyard again. 

Morgana hopped after him, his whiskers now pointing to a door with vines growing out of it. "Guys, the will seed is up here!"

Makoto jumped up to them. She went up to the door and tried to open it. The vines were too tuff to get past. "Ren, could you cut these vines for me please?" 

Ren went up to the vines and slashed them. He opened the door only to find a brown skull with glowing red eye holes. It was standing on a leaf that looked to be creating the vines around it. It was placed at the end of a hallway. As he and Makoto walked up to it, they heard distant voices. Some were screaming, some were crying, and others went dead after a few moments. Makoto began to get a bit frightened and held onto Ren's arm.

Ren looked down at his arm because of the added weight. He saw Makoto panicking a little. Ren whispered to her, "It's going to be okay Makoto, I promise, nothing bad will happen to you." He could see that Makoto relaxed a bit, and her grip on his arm was loosened a bit.

They had reached the skull. Ren walked up to it, lifted it above him. "Alas, poor Yorick, I knew him well." 

Makoto snickered. "Ren, you were waiting to say that weren't you?"

Ren scratched the back of his neck. "I've been kinda hoping for a skull to appear in this castle, but they're surprisingly well kept."

Suddenly, the vines around them started to rot away. The voices had stopped completely. Morgana came running after them. "Sorry for the wait, I was helping Ryuji get up here." Morgana blinked at them a few times. "Are you guys… dating?"

Makoto turned red. "W-why would you assume that?" 

Morgana pointed at Makoto's arm, which was currently attached to Ren's arm. "You've got it all wrong Morgana, she was just scared by the voice that sprouted from the seed." Ren tried to justify.

"Oh, that makes sense. The will seeds are big places of distortion. Nothing in the real world has any parallel to will seed rooms. The "voices" are most likely memories of traumas that led up to the distortion." Morgana explained.

Ryuji caught up to them. "Guys," he was clearly out of breath. "I think we should call it quits guys." 

Morgana nodded. "As much as I'd hate to admit it, I'm getting tired as well."

Makoto nodded. "I agree, we'll meet up again in a few days. Until then, relax and enjoy yourselves."

Morgana and Ryuji took the lead to leave. Ren and Makoto followed shortly, but were distracted by a blue light. They turned towards it and saw the velvet room's door. With Justine outside, writing something in a notebook. She looked up to acknowledge the two. "My master wishes to see you." She opened the door expecting the two to enter.

They entered the velvet room in their prison garbs, this time they were in a single room. Ren and Makoto looked out to Igor. "So it would seem you both have gotten multiple Personas. With multiple Personas, you're able to fuse them."

Igor snapped his fingers and two guillotines appeared. Justine came up to the two. "Choose a Persona from your list."

Makoto and Ren chose Pyro-Jack and Pixie. Justine and Caroline escorted the Personas toward the guillotines. Once they reached them, the twins raped them in a tarp and put locks on them so they wouldn't try to take them off. Caroline put them under the guillotine and locked them in place. Justine pulled a lever, and the scythes came down. The personas didn't scream when they were hit, instead, they turned into a sort of blue energy.

Then an Incubus formed from the blue energy. _**"I am thou, and thou art I. It seems I kept you waiting long enough, so I'll give you my power to fight your foes."**_ He turned into a mask that resembled both Ren's and Makoto's and disappeared.

"Now that you know the power of the wildcard, use it to your advantage." And with that, they left the velvet room.

As they exited, Morgana greeted them back. "Why'd you two stop moving?"

Ren looked confused. "What do you mean? We went into the velvet room." 

"Wow, you must be tired, you guys were standing there not moving, you looked like you were in a trans." Morgana sighed. "Anyways, we should really get going."

\------------------------------------------------------------

Ren made it back to Yongen-Jaya. While he walked, he noticed a poster promoting a team of pop stars. Which gave Ren an idea. Once he got to his bed, he texted Makoto and Ryuji.

<Ren> Guys, I have an idea.

<Ren> what if we pick out code names?

<Makoto> Why would we need code names?

<Ryuji> Why wouldn't we need code names?

<Ryuji> That would be sweet!

<Makoto> Well if we're going to pick out names, Ren should go first.

<Makoto> Since, not counting Morgana, was the first one to get a Persona.

<Ren> Alright, what about…

<Ren> Knight?

<Ryuji> No, you ain't serious enough to be a knight.

' _ Not serious enough?' _ He mentally sighed.

Morgana hopped onto his shoulder. "What about Joker?"

Ren nodded. "That name sounds good."

<Ren> Morgana suggested Joker.

<Ryuji> Ha, 

<Ryuji> it's because you always make jokes right?

<Makoto> Oh, I was thinking about cards.

<Makoto> I guess I should go next.

<Ryuji> Shoulder spikes!

<Ren> That's really what you thought of?

<Ren> Oh and Morgana suggests Apocalypse Rider

<Makoto> No.

<Makoto> What do you think, Ren?

Ren thought for a moment, thinking of Makoto's likes, dislikes, and her Persona, Johanna.

<Ren> Well, your favorite British band is Queen.

<Ren> Plus one of their songs, called Killer Queen kind of describes you.

<Ren> In a sense that you make explosions.

<Makoto> Queen…

<Makoto> It has a nice ring to it. I'll take it.

<Ryuji> Alright, my turn.

<Ren> Morgana says Bone head.

<Ryuji> HELL NO!

<Ryuji> How about, Skull?

<Ryuji> Y'know since my mask looks like one and my Persona is a skeleton Pirate?

<Ren> Sounds good.

<Makoto> What about you Morgana?

<Ren> He says "I want a simple name"

<Ryuji> How about Monamona?

<Ren> Or we can just shorten it to Mona.

<Makoto> That sounds good.

<Ren> Alright, we got our code names.

<Ren> I'm getting tired actually. 

<Ryuji> Same, Gn guys!

<Makoto> I feel exhausted as well.

<Makoto> Good night Ren, Goodnight Ryuji.

<Ren> Goodnight Makoto, Goodnight Ryuji!

Ren turned his phone off. ' _ I wonder what I'll do tomorrow. Maybe I should help out Dr. Tae.' _ He thought before dozing off.

___________

[The Fool] Ren Amamiya/Igor - Rank 3 / 1

[Priestess] Makoto Nijima - Rank 3

[Chariot] Ryuji Sakamoto - Rank 1

[Death] Tae Takemi - Rank 1


End file.
